


New Worlds to Conquer

by Ocreata



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst and Feels, Banter, Betrayal, Crimes & Criminals, During Canon, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Intrigue, Organized Crime, Pre-Canon, assholes being assholes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:14:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29229810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocreata/pseuds/Ocreata
Summary: Lured into a life of excitement, crime, and excess, Lydia Ryder has been leading a double life- not entirely by choice.After years of manipulation, training, genetic tinkering, and abuse, she's been made second in command of a gang of pirates.  Her father believes she's been dutifully studying in University and training with the Alliance reserves.  In reality, she's trapped.  The woman who demands she call her 'Mother' keeps her collared with threats to her real family's lives.Andromeda is a chance for freedom.Setting up her erstwhile mother for a fall, she escapes onto the Hyperion and leaves that life behind.  Except...why should she?  A whole new galaxy- why shouldn't she seize the chance to use all her hard-won skills?  Why should she have to change who she is just because people don't approve?Unfortunately when she finally arrives in her new life, it turns out she's not the only one with a mind to make Andromeda's underbelly theirs.  Her crew smuggled onto the Nexus are scattered, and now she's Pathfinder- a pretty good front.  All she has to do is find her people, get established, and get rid of the competition.Too bad the competition's so damn charming.
Relationships: Female Ryder | Sara & Reyes Vidal, Female Ryder | Sara/Original Character(s), Female Ryder | Sara/Reyes Vidal, Ryder/Reyes Vidal
Comments: 7
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

“Aria T'Loak can kiss my ass.”

The laughter that followed Lydia's statement was as mocking as it was appreciative.

Ringing the dented mess hall table, the pirate crew of the Megaera were a mixed bunch, two batarians, a younger barefaced turian, one particularly disreputable-looking salarian, and assorted humans. All eyes were on Lydia as she hacked the lock on the crate they'd dragged up from cargo. It was finally here. Proof that she was worth being at the helm, proof that her plans were smart, that she deserved the command she took at knife-point.

Proof that Lydia Ryder wasn't just a pretty face.

“You say that behind her back, but if she were fuckin' here...” Nick Black, her second, spoke up over the laughter. He raked a hand through his tousled brown hair, twisting it to the side with a theatrical flourish. “Dare you, Princess.”

“Like a no-name thief would get the chance to _be_ in Aria's presence,” Myx, the older of the two batarian women said sarcastically, muscular arms folding.

“So, by the time I am,” Lydia said, grinning to herself as the lid of the crate popped open, “I guess I won't be a no-name thief any more. And then I'll be able to say...” She tossed the lid to the side and stepped back, hands on her hips. “Kiss my ass, Aria T'Loak.”

Nick burst to his feet, crowding in close and peering over Lydia's shoulder as she tapped her fingers against her hips. He wrapped both arms around her upper chest, leaning his weight on her. Jerk.

“It's...wow, a fuckin' rock,” he said, excitement audibly deflating.

“This? Is a many many thousands of years old head of a statue of Janari, goddess of agriculture. It's the most expensive piece in the collection that we hijacked two hours before Aria was going to,” Lydia declared, reaching down and picking up the statue despite Myx's warning intake of breath.

It was heavy, but dropping it would have been idiotic. Carefully turning it around, she examined the gorgeous artifact, eyes scanning over the weather-worn features of the goddess. Ancient thing. It'd been excavated in a temple built over Prothean ruins.

Finest example of this type of asari artifact.

And now it was in her grubby little thief's hands.

“It's a shame to let her go,” Lydia sighed, carefully setting the goddess back in her cradle. Pulling off her gloves with a snap, she shook her head. “My tastes are too expensive for my credit account. Luckily these have a buyer already.”

“Don't worry, I'll buy you somethin' pretty with my cut,” Nick promised her, giving her a kiss on the side of the head. “Come on, Captain, let's go set course.”

“Mmh. Engineering to stations,” she said, closing up the crate and re-locking it. Letting Nick take her arm, she trooped after him from the tiny galley to the elevator. “What you going to buy me?”

He gave her a brief once-over, critically. “New nose ring? You been wearin' that one every day for a week.”

Of course he'd noticed. Nick noticed everything. She'd been so busy focusing on her plan and the takeover of the ship that she hadn't even settled into her new quarters. Let alone changed her jewelry.

It wasn't much fun being as dirty as everything else on this boat.

“Ruby, please,” she said, pleased with that. “No fake shit, I'm too expensive for that.”

“Natch. You notify the Matriarch we got the cargo?”

“Mmh. Mother's always happier when the take pisses off someone she doesn't like. This was a good call, Nicky. Thank you for picking up the slack that Hayward dropped. I'll pass you ten percent of my cut.”

“I'll just spend it on you,” Nick pointed out, and then chuckled at her smug little smirk. “Or maybe I won't. Maybe I'll get a new plasma knife or somethin'. I'd get to fuckin' torture people more if you didn't keep throwin' them out the airlock.”

Lydia rolled her eyes. Of course he was still griping over that.

“If this is about Ragnar, it was about sending a message. I know quick and easy was too good for him, but I needed him off my ship more than I needed him to suffer. If I didn't step in and seize command, Mother would notice. You know what she does when I fail. It took me forever to convince her to let me have a ship.”

“Doesn't mean we couldn't mess around with him a bit before the airlock, though.”

Nick wouldn't get it, he never did. Bastard was too psychotic for logic. At least he'd accept things on her say-so, because if it wasn't for her, he'd be dead. The punishment she'd been given for saving his life was the same as she'd get if she failed to take over the Megaera...

She still remembered the week of re-education she'd suffered through, chained hand and foot in the white cell covered in the recorded torture sessions the Matriarch called 'gentle reminders'. The only reprieve from horror and the occasional electric shock when she dared to close her eyes was Her voice, soothing and comforting. The knowledge at the end that it had all been a trial by Mother to test her resolve didn't make her proud- no matter how much she'd been praised for her perseverance.

All it had done was make the hatred festering in her heart harder, colder.

“You're mine.”

Nick's pale eyes slid sidelong to her, and the perpetual smirk at the corner of his scarred lips faded away. “I know, Princess. I wouldn't do nothing unless you told me to.”

She didn't believe him for a second- left to his own devices, he'd run wild. “Just a reminder. There will be suffering. I promise. Just not his- Ragnar wasn't the one who matters. Focus on the right goal, Nicky, don't get lost in the details- a little fun doesn't get us what we want.”

“Freedom,” he said like a prayer.

“It will happen. We'll find a way. Every day that passes, my evidence grows- and when the opportunity comes, we'll seize it,” she said quietly. “Mother's going to pay.”

“You won't leave me, will you?”

Turning towards him, she smiled and took his hand, pulling him out of the elevator as the door opened. He looked so anxious it was almost funny. How could she leave him behind? Not only would she miss him horribly, but he'd probably end up dead after going on a killing spree. Nicky had absolutely no moral compass.

Apart from her.

“I don't leave real family behind. I promise.”

If only she weren't trapped between two of them.

Lydia's quarters on the Megaera were still tainted by the remnants of the previous inhabitant's non-literal shit. She'd thrown in her bag twenty minutes after airlocking the bastard, and hadn't taken the time to really make it 'hers'. The whole place smelled like weed and cheap aftershave. Not even the air purifier could do much about it.

It was worked into the bed.

It took her ten minutes to clear a space that might pass for being an actual planetside location. A low, battered couch she covered with a sheet would do as a stage. Lydia prayed to god it was clean. After that, she checked the time on Earth, threw her leather jacket against the wall, and yanked on an oversized t-shirt from out of her bag.

A hand run through her hair after unbraiding it made her look suitably tousled, and she smeared a hand down her face, smudging the remains of her makeup.

It'd have to do.

Shucking off her pants, she threw herself onto the couch and tucked her bare legs into the t-shirt before making the call. The holo of her omni-tool flickered, and then clarified into a familiar face. Alec Ryder smiled as their eyes met, and she returned it with a sleepy one of her own.

“Daddy.”

“It's about time. Check-in day, honey. Have you called your brother yet?”

“Dad, I just woke up,” she laughed, wiping a thumb under her eye. “I'll call him soon, you know you're ahead of me, time-wise.”

“Sorry,” he said, lightly abashed. They shared a smile. “I hope you're not staying up too late. Just because you've graduated doesn't mean you get to party all the time! You've got to get out there and find a job. Step up, Ryder, there's big things out there waiting for you.”

Lydia kept her smile, but she felt it dying on the inside. Job, yeah right. Even if she had gone to college like she'd said she was, nobody important would hire the daughter of a guy who had gotten dishonorably discharged for illegal experimentation.

She didn't blame Dad any more, she knew he'd just been trying to help mom.

Mom...

No, it wasn't time to dwell on her, not right now. She needed to stay strong. Finding a way to escape this life would take everything she had, and there was no time for weakness.

“I don't know. The market's not looking great right now, and for obvious reasons, I don't think the Alliance would be thrilled about me switching from reserve to active duty,” she said, apologetically. Dad's expression turned pensive, and she felt like crap about it. “But...enough about that. How about you? You said you had a lead on some sort of new job?”

Dad's withdrawn look softened. “Yes, it seems to be panning out. Once I have more details, I'd like to share them with your brother and you- I think I have a place for you both.”

Intrigued but amused, Lydia raised an eyebrow. “Nepotism, dad?”

“No, no. You and your brother both have skills that would be sorely needed for this expedition.”

Expedition?

Interesting choice of words. Then again, her 'specialty' was ethnobotany, so expedition made some sort of sense? But why would dad be involved?

Hell, why would Leo be involved?

“Sounds weird. If you really think I'll be useful...”

No way she was going to say yes- and have to fake six years of school?

Oof.

“Don't undersell yourself. Things are moving quickly, so I'll have more information soon. And...just keep an open mind.”

Weirder and weirder.

Lydia smiled. “Of course!”

“Is there something you need to tell me?” His voice sounded less amused.

So, so much.

“I don't know what you mean, daddy,” Lydia said, blinking innocently.

“There's, ah- something stuck to your couch there.”

Lydia turned her head, and winced immediately. A pair of slightly dingy white men's briefs had been stuck to the sheet, and she hadn't noticed in her rush. Grimacing, she picked them up in two nails and flung them away from her, shuddering.

Damn it, Ragnar.

“My roommate has a new boyfriend. Ew,” she said, grimacing at her father's holo. “Maybe I need a new roommate.”

“I'm supposed to believe that?” Dad asked, but with a smile.

“Daddy! I'm not Leo, okay? If I met someone I would tell you, I promise,” Lydia said, nose wrinkling. “And they would have better taste in underwear.”

“Well, at least that part I believe.”

“Mean, dad,” she accused, laughing when he just cracked a smile at her. “I'm all grown up now, no more teenage shenanigans. Besides, I live pretty high up, I couldn't sneak out the window any more.”

Mostly due to the whole asphyxiating in space thing.

“How did I have two undisciplined kids like you? You know, I never gave my dad an ounce of trouble-”

“Yeah, I know dad,” Lydi replied, not believing it for a second. Like she did every single time he started saying it. “It's not your fault you had twins who are a bad influence on each other.”

“Have you talked to the reservist office? I can send you some contacts in the Alliance to cultivate...”

Damn it, she really hadn't wanted to go down this path. “Daddy, and what? Be stuck at Corporal for life? I love you. I don't blame you. Our chances of making a career of it are completely tanked now. Leo applied to N-School, and they rejected him the instant they saw his name, dad.”

Alec Ryder glanced down, lips tightening into a line. “You always tell me the hard truths. Just like your mom did.”

“Because Leo can't bear to. Dad...we're okay. So I'm not going to be on a research vessel- so what? There's other things I can do with my life.”

Like piracy.

“What if I can give us a second chance? A new start?”

“Where, Terminus?” Lydia chuckled, lifting her shoulders in a little shrug. “I'd rough it for you, dad, if for no one else, but I don't think the boonies would find me particularly useful.”

“Your marksman scores are unparalleled.”

Hmm, a deflection.

“Oh, I know. But you're being a little weird,” Lydia said, tilting her head to the side. “Are you going to tell me what's going on, dad?”

Dad shook his head. “Give me a little time. All right? We'll discuss it at next Check-In. You going to call your brother?”

“Yes, sir,” she said with her most charming smile, fingers tapping her cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Stay out of trouble,” he said significantly.

“Always,” Lydia lied, and held her smile until the call ended.

Sighing, she rolled her eyes, stretching out on the couch and flopping onto her back. Her head hit something in the crack between arm and cushion, and she grimaced, reaching back under the sheet. Eventually she came out with a bottle of shitty asari liquor, sloshing as she tilted it to the side. About a quarter full.

Shrugging to herself, she propped herself up on the arm of the couch and uncorked it, taking a swig.

Dad's guilt bothered her, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She wasn't going to lie to him- and honestly it wasn't about her. Her 'career' was a lie. But Leo's career...he'd followed in dad's footsteps like a good son, and dad's dishonorable discharge had tanked any possibility he had of ever making use of his degree.

If he was lucky he'd end up teaching high-school science. And Leo would be terrible at that. He hated both children and wearing ties the correct way.

On time, her omni-tool chimed, and she answered. Just audio- a voice as familiar as her own crackled in her ear. He sounded tired.

“Dog-face,” her brother greeted her.

“Picked up syphilis in a bar bathroom yet?” she asked sweetly.

“No, I don't date your exes any more,” Leo said, equally snide.

“Why is your holo off?” Lifting the bottle for another swig, she grimaced and re-corked it. Not good at all. Usually even shitty asari booze was better than most. Ragnar must have cut it with something. The plebe had deserved worse than airlocking.

“I just woke up. I got home at dawn from that gig my boyfriend had. Did you get the 'find a job' talk too?”

“Which boyfriend?” she sniped, but continued because it wasn't really a question. “Yeah, I did. But also, was he weird to you, too? Talking about some mysterious new opportunity that he wouldn't actually talk about?”

“I think it has to do with SAM. He's made a lot of progress lately on the next implant version- I've been looking over his most recent build and-”

Jolting up to a sitting position, Lydia stared blankly at the scarred, dingy wall. “Wait, he's still working on that? You're _both_ still working on that?!”

There was a long pause from Leo. “...oops.”

“Why the fuck doesn't anyone _tell_ me anything?” Lydia whined.

“Uh, because you've basically isolated yourself and we have to force you to stay in contact?” Leo said sarcastically.

“You know _why_ ,” she hissed at him.

Leo's voice sobered up. “Yeah. Speaking of, you're okay?”

The change in discussion banished any banter, her voice dropping into 'business' tones. “I worry about you more than I worry about me. Things are good right now, stable. You've gotten the latest drops to the deadman's switch file?”

“I wish you wouldn't call it that,” he grumbled, and then heaved a dramatic sigh. “ _Yes_.”

“If I miss three Check-Ins, you send it to every damn authority you can get your hands on. C-Sec, Alliance, STG, Hierarchy Investigatory Bureau, all of it.” Lydia rolled over onto her side, heaving a long, tired sigh. “I just need more time, and a proper exit plan. I know I can pin the Matriarch down for a _while_ , but I also know she'll probably escape. The more evidence I gather, the longer they should be able to hold her.”

“Not to be crass, but why can't you just kill her?”

“Because I'm still building loyalty- it takes time. Maybe a quarter of the Furies would take my side over hers, and that's just not enough. If I killed her, they'd turn on me. This isn't the fucking- the fucking Blue Suns. The Matriarch operates on loyalty, the kind that extends after death. She's got a thousand years of experience on me. She took over the Furies twenty years ago, I've only been a part for four. I'm not risking you or dad being collateral damage because I'm not established enough.”

“Sometimes I wish I was ignorant of the shit you get up to,” Leo sighed, but she could hear the worry in his voice.

“Sorry, Lee.”

“It's all right, Lydi. I'd worry more if I didn't know. You never know, maybe this new opportunity of dad's might be something to help.”

Mmmh, there was no way that was true. But Leo didn't need her dashing his hopes, she felt bad enough that he knew what she was up to. It put him in more danger, but it also ensured that if everything went wrong there would be someone at her back. It was one of those measured risk things.

Besides, hiding things from her twin didn't come naturally.

“Maybe. I've got to go do things that are definitely legal and don't involve thievery of any sort or fencing of goods. I love you, skank.”

“Love you too, slag.”

Her audio transmitter turned off as the call ended.

A deep, slow breath meant to cleanse her mind only made Lydia all too aware that the space she was in still smelled awful. Grumbling, she swiped to her feet. It was time to make this space her own- she'd taken the Meg fair and square, and now it was time to start the next stage of her plan. Building a crew that would be reliable, and loyal.

Myx would have to go, she was die-hard for the Matriarch. Swapping her for Cicero on the Alecto would give her a good foundation, and another strong tactical voice to help her building plans. Unfortunately, there weren't so many krogan in the Furies that Mother would just give him up.

She'd have to play it carefully.

The old Furies from when it was a human-run piracy op were long gone, so there was no hope of playing to human-only sympathies. She'd just have to put her puzzle together piece by piece. And then once the Meg was fully crewed by people loyal only to her...she'd move on and take another vessel. It was a long game, but she couldn't risk that the Matriarch would move against dad or Leo.

They were always there, a threat dangled over her head.

Behave or lose them.

Unfortunately for the Matriarch, threats just made Lydia even more stubborn. That was one thing her 'Mother' hadn't taught her, but her actual mom. If you didn't have anything to stand for, you'd already lost. And her family was the one thing Lydia wouldn't budge on. Morality might be flexible, bravery discarded for survival, and people to be used, but...

Not the ones that mattered.

Those were the ones you went to war for.

The two months after Ragnar's constructive dismissal were busy.

Cicero had been acquired and had proven himself useful, if as weirdly ponderous for a krogan as ever. Lydia had to thin out her crew to acquire him, but she'd gotten rid of a lot of dead weight in the process. They were currently running with no fat on the bones, though. She couldn't afford to lose anyone.

Unfortunately, her hand had been forced.

Trying to balance the intrigue in her life was like a series of concentric circles. In the middle, her machinations against the Matriarch. Outside of it, the machinations within the Furies as they all vied for money and status. Outside of that, the Furies dealings with the rest of the galaxy.

Today's issue was one for the middle ring.

Boarding the Vyassa had been easily enough, she'd brought two cases of stolen honey mead and a discussion about a joint op. Sinora had been so confident her double-dealing had gone unnoticed that she'd let Lydia right on board. And Lydia let her crew onboard. And now Sinora was dealt with.

Slamming her fist into the wall, Lydia overrode the airlock.

Over the ship's system warnings, a few faint thuds were heard from within before Sinora's body was sucked out of the opening and into space. One more problem taken care of. Guns at the ready, people arrayed behind her on the bridge of the ship, Lydia shifted the rifle in her hands.

“Who else wants a fucking piece of me?!”

The bridge crew of the Vyassa stared at one another as Lydia's strident call rolled past them, and then up at her and her crew. Nick took a step forward, shotgun at the ready. She held a hand up towards him.

“Lemme kill them, Princess, we just need the ship,” he begged her, leering at the crew.

“Black, just because Sinora was a double-crossing piece of shit doesn't mean _they_ are. These are still our sibs in the Furies. Besides, you know she wouldn't like it if we slaughtered them all. I mean,” Lydia smiled to herself, tilting her head. “She'd be a little annoyed with me.”

Nova spoke up, from the back of the crowd. “Speaking of. Captain, incoming call to the Vyassa from the Alecto.”

“Mother,” Lydia said with a smirk. “Halls, take over re-educating them on their new leadership. This is your ship now. If anyone has a problem with that, take it up with Halls and Nova. We're all family. Let's act like it. Shoot each other in the face, not the back.”

Walking back through her people to the helm of the ship, she let them part out of her way. Nova stepped out of her way, their mandibles quirking into an amused smirk. They shared a nod, and Lydia winked as she sashayed past, pouring herself into the seat at the helm.

She picked up the call, Halls' shouting echoing.

“Captain Sinora.” The voice on the call was rolling, rich and deceptively kind. It never failed to twist Lydia's stomach with a thrill of fear. She knew the pause in her voice would be noted- it always was. Mother would be disappointed if Lydia wasn't afraid any more.

And if she was disappointed, she'd think of new ways to make Lydia afraid.

“She's indisposed, mummy. What can I do for you?” Lydia asked in her most ingratiating voice. “Hopefully you weren't planning to _warn_ her or anything.”

Mother chuckled, not phased for even a second. Of course she was- couldn't let Lydia know if she'd been taken off-guard or not. “Nonsense. I didn't even know you were making a move, Princess. Well done. I just finished reading the reports you sent me on her splitting her cargo and selling off to the Blue Suns. Very disappointing news.”

“I had to get her now, she has eight million in raw eezo that she was going to cut us out of. I know how much you hate being cut out,” Lydia said, examining her nails. “I need a manicure, mummy.”

“Have you appraised the eezo?”

Gross.

“I checked it when we boarded her. Genuine. I hate selling eezo, it's a waste of my talents.”

“Art and jewelry are harder to move, darling,” the Matriarch said indulgently, and then sighed. “You've done well. As for the Vyassa-”

“I'm giving the command to Halls. You know how I feel about not rewarding loyalty,” Lydia interrupted, lounging back in her seat so she could watch Halls' dressing down, upside-down, hair cascading to the floor. “She's doing well. I'll shuffle a couple people in to help her while things settle down.”

Giving Halls the command would keep her loyal to Lydia, especially if she subtly suggested that the Matriarch didn't want her to.

“That leaves you down one crew, Princess. Excellent timing. I've found a very promising new recruit. Former military, knows how to captain a ship, smuggler. You'll come meet him and see if he suits you- how far out are you from Omega?”

“Thirty hours, give or take.”

“Citadel?”

“Eight-ish.”

“I'll set you up an appointment at Salon Eros in Zakera Ward. Do you need a pedicure, too?”

“Mmh. And a facial wouldn't go amiss, mummy.”

The Matriarch laughed. “That goes without saying. Vyassa is now your command. Send your new Captain to Omega to offload the eezo with my contact, and bring the Megaera to the Citadel. Saven will meet you at Dark Star in thirteen hours. I'll send you a new outfit to the apartment.”

“You're not coming?”

“The Citadel isn't a good place for me right now, darling,” the Matriarch said, laughing throatily.

_Don't worry. I'll make sure nowhere is safe for you one day._

“Anything I need to do?” Lydia responded instead.

“No, I have it all well in hand. And, Princess?”

“Yes, mum?”

“You might be feeling proud of yourself for this little coup, and you should be, but remember. Everything you have is because I gave it to you. Remember that. I would hate for something to happen to your brother or father if you start getting _ideas_.”

She'd never been so direct before.

It meant Lydia was stronger than she'd ever been.

Not a victory, but something to be understood. Staring at a wall, her eyes went hard, and she felt her lips twitch. The smile that curled across her lips was slow and self-satisfied, but her voice was soft and apologetic.

“Yes, Mother.”

“Good girl.”

It took Lydia a few seconds of controlling her temper before she could face her crew.

But the Vyassa was hers, the next phase was complete.

Nails done up to match the cute little red dress, Lydia examined herself critically in the full-length mirror.

Not bad.

As much as she realized the trinkets, spa visits, and toys were just bribes to keep her in line, that didn't mean she wasn't going to take full advantage of them. Glancing at the time, she wrinkled her nose. Damn, only a half hour.

She'd have to do her own makeup instead of finding somewhere to get it done.

It was more fun to have other people do things for you.

After a straight month of working with the worst people in the worst places, even a night or two to enjoy the Citadel was welcome. She never felt fully clean when onboard the ship. Something about the recycled water and the fact that everyone else considered showering optional. She didn't like being in Mother's apartment- it was probably riddled with surveillance- but at least she was clean now.

A heavy hand with the eye makeup and bloody red lipstick finished the look appropriately- no need to do anything ridiculous with her hair. She just left it down. A trim at the salon had neatened the edges, but not took off any length. It was past mid-back now, a curtain of inky black that caught glints of blue in the right light. She hadn't let anyone _actually_ cut it since mom had died.

One last check of her teeth for lipstick and a boob adjustment and she was all ready to go.

Only ten minutes behind schedule.

Which was the perfect amount of time to make someone she was meeting for business stew. If it'd been personal, a good half hour was usually better. When they needed stewing, of course. It was a good test of personality. It was also rude.

But a lot of Mother's tactics were pretty rude- and often power plays.

There had been a sputtering attempt at getting Chora's Den working again after the Battle of the Citadel, but sadly it'd closed doors when other clubs sniped most of the dancers. Hadn't rebuilt quick enough. She wasn't familiar with the Dark Star, which was where she was meant to meet this new recruit.

At least the air car knew the way.

On the way she idly listened to the gossip and entertainment news. Another conspiracy segment about 'Is Commander Shepard Alive?!'. Yawn.

When the car came to a stop she poured herself out of it, surveying the neighborhood. Hmm. Higher class than she usually went to for drinking. As she wandered inside, the atmosphere only proved her right about the place- all sedate and clean. Boo. She preferred her bars chaotic and dirty.

Maybe after.

A slow scan of the room gave her three turian targets that might have been her man. One sitting in a corner she thought might have been him, shadowed in a booth, but when she sauntered toward the bar she realized it couldn't be. He was wearing C-Sec armor.

The second was probably her best bet, leaning at the bar nursing a drink. Dark carapace with some scars, barefaced, battered armor- the wear and tear couldn't hide that it was good, solid armor. Expensive merc armor. Once she got a closer look at him, she dismissed her third target for being too young.

Mother had said he was experienced.

The guy at the bar had to be him.

She approached within earshot of him, flashing the bartender her best smile. She tilted her head as he approached, innocently. “My friend told me you actually have decent tequila here,” she said, tucking a finger under her painted lower lip.

“Yeah,” he said simply.

“Can I get a double shot of tequila? Oh, and a Matriarch's Gambit.”

The bartender's affected disinterest faded, and a sharp look replaced it. She could feel the mercenary glancing sidelong at her as well, but briefly. Discreetly.

“Table in the back left corner. I'll have someone bring it by,” the bartender said.

Smiling sweetly, she turned on her heel with a flutter of her hair and sauntered off for the indicated table. It was small, almost invisible tucked into a little alcove. It had no chairs, just a booth behind it turned to survey the rest of the room. Wall to her back. Good.

Knowing Mother, that was entirely on purpose- she was even more paranoid than Lydia.

Her drinks were delivered swiftly, leaving people waiting for theirs at the bar. Smiling, Lydi tilted her head to the bartender, picking up the tequila and examining it. Not a bad color, but the smell...

Wrinkling her nose, she pulled back from it.

 _Not_ great tequila.

The Matriarch's Gambit was prettier, layers of gold and blue liquor carefully separated- Mother's favorite drink. Also hit like a truck. A bit sweet for Lydi's taste, but it was all free. She'd been looking forward to some free champagne at the salon, but they hadn't had any today.

So disappointing.

She was lifting the tequila to her lips when a shadow crossed the table. Attention on the glass, she lifted it and turned it, voice slow and disappointed. “I don't know why it's so darn difficult for everyone to give me exactly what I want when I want it. It's not like I'm asking for a lot. This is not decent tequila.”

Sighing, she still tossed the glass back, downing it in one long swallow.

It scorched its way down, much rougher than it should have been, but considering the swill Nicky usually bought...this was nothing. The glass left her lips, empty, a droplet trickling down to her chin. She daintily swiped it off with the side of her nail, and then tucked her finger into her mouth as she finally glanced up.

The stare turned down on her was wary, pale gray. It looked like the scar across the left side of his face and over the mandible had nearly hit the eye- a close call. “I was told I was meeting the Captain.” The tone was judgmental, but the voice was nice- deep even for a turian.

Leaning over, she gave the booth a little pat, dropping her hand. “I bite, but only when people earn it, don't worry!”

The once-over she got was far from interested- just more suspicious. “ _You're_ the Captain? I was informed I would be meeting someone called Ragnar.”

“Recent promotion,” she said with a little laugh. It meant Mother had been carefully cultivating him for a while, watching him. Vetting did take a while. “Captain Ragnar left us two months ago. Sit down Saven, you're starting to hurt my feelings.”

Some of the suspicion faded. He sat down, but less than happily, his mostly-empty glass thumping down at the table as he hunched over it, peering at her. Reaching under the table, Lydia hit the button she knew was going to be there. Another of Mother's habits- she didn't like having to flag down people to get what she wanted.

“Do people leave you often?”

“Only when they're found lacking. The Matriarch is very strict about loyalty. If you're not capable of that...” She rested her cheek in her hand, smiling up at him. “But I understand. I'm not what you expected-”

She paused as another round of drinks was set down at the table. He glanced at it silently, and then back at her. To her pleasure, he threw back the drink he'd been nursing, emptying it, and grabbed the new one she'd ordered. No suspicion for the drinks, at least.

She picked up her second tequila and swirled it.

“But maybe that's a good thing, Saven, that I'm unexpected. Mother thinks you're a good fit for me, and I trust her judgment.”

“Fit for you, or for your crew?” he asked neutrally, but she'd seen the slight brow-plate lift at the word 'mother'.

“For me. Personalities are important for me. I need to know the people working under me have my back, no matter the circumstances. If we don't fit together, no hard feelings- I'll snipe someone from another ship and you'll be assigned in their place. We don't waste resources.”

“You have that authority?”

Odd question. By now, a merc usually would have asked her about pay, tried to grope her under the table, or gotten up and left. Saven was interesting.

“I'm a little spoiled, I admit it, but I'm well worth it,” Lydia said. The scanner on her omni-tool chimed softly, interrupting her, and she lifted it under the cover of the table and brought it up. Frowning, she leaned down, peering under the table. The audio bug would have been invisible if not for the notification of her scan, and with a small 'tsk' she pulled it off with two manicured nails.

Not unheard of, especially if people knew the Matriarch was prone to using this table, but annoying.

“Something wrong?”

“How rude,” Lydia said, leaning up, dropping the tiny bug on the table. Normally she would have left it in place and just noted it was there, but considering she was meeting a stranger...

It was good to watch his reaction.

“What's that?” Saven asked blankly, sounding disinterested.

“Audio bug. It's fine, it's probably a bar security measure,” she said, like that was something people actually did. “I just find it kind of, I don't know. Rude. Don't you?”

“You sure it's not C-Sec?” he asked, staring at it suspiciously.

“Why would C-Sec want to listen to us? There's nothing interesting about us, right?” Lydia smiled her sweetest smile, head tilting to the side as she stared at him. A threat. She let a little of it creep into her voice. “Right, Saven? Unless there's something interesting about _you_.”

He stared at her, silently.

The well-designed program in her omni-tool had hacked into his audio transmitter within thirty seconds of their meeting. It was much less noticeable than hacking into his tool, or any of the other methods she could use to track him. It also had limited uses.

But, being near-undetectable made up for it.

“I tell you what. Mother vetted you, and that means something.” She lifted a finger warningly as he shifted. “I don't want you to talk, just listen. Mother vetted you. So I'm gonna be nice. If this is your doing? While I'm in the bathroom you can disappear. If it's not, stay here. I will find out if you're lying, and I can kill you even in five inch heels. I can kill you, _especially_ in five inch heels.”

Sliding up from the table, she smiled at him and turned, wandering off across the bar. With plenty of hip action, because it was the principle of the thing. Never waste an opportunity.

Stepping into the bathroom, she did a round checking the place out before hitching a lean against the wall, bringing up her omni-tool. It cut in abruptly, halfway through a sentence. Damn it, she'd missed the beginning.

“- Executor gave me clearance. I don't care what your Captain says.” That was definitely Saven, tinnily faint because of her choice of hacks. It was enough.

“This isn't your jurisdiction,” a voice that definitely wasn't Saven said more clearly. Probably that C-Sec she'd seen in the bar. Executor gave it away.

“I don't have a damn jurisdiction, kid. Leave. I've been working on this for months, and if you blow it for me, I'll make sure your career is over- and so is the career every damn family member I can track down. Everyone you've ever met. Do you _hear_ me?”

Hmm. Hot. Also, cop. Saven was a cop, just not C-Sec.

Still hot.

“Investigator, I have orders.”

“Get out or I shoot you. There. New orders.”

Hmm, yes. Sexy. Investigator probably meant he was from Palaven, then. Ooh, the Hierarchy was after Mother as well. One more to add to the list.

Amusement factor aside, this was good. Having an undercover cop onboard could be useful if she could find a way to keep him tracked and close by. If he was trying to infiltrate, that would be easy enough. And he'd be trying to gather evidence, which she could feed him...

A new, interesting fast track for taking Mother down.

Plus, now she could fuck with him a bit.

Saven muttered irritably, “damned rookies.”

Smirking to herself, Lydia severed the connection.

Oh yeah.

This was going to be fun.


	2. Chapter 2

The problem with fighting people in a dress and heels was that half the time they tried to go easy on you.

Lydia's pride was a little hurt, but luckily there were people here to take it out on. One had gone down with a throat strike, gagging, but four still surrounded her. Before they got the message that she wasn't to be fucked with, she went for the second one, grabbing the hand reaching for her arm and yanking inwards.

Startled by the move, the merc staggered forward, directly into her waiting punch. One hit to the nose, followed by another lightning-fast disabling strike to the throat. They were armored, so the vulnerable points were limited.

While the merc was choking, she spun on her toes and flung him into the group of three on the other side of her.

It was over so fast none of them had time to react. She was still flanked, though- when she turned her back to him, the merc behind her surged forward to try and grab her in a bear-hold. Which would have been annoying if she was there any more.

The walls of the buildings that formed this alley were fairly smooth, but every ten feet or so there was a horizontal support ledge. She flung herself against the left wall, using sheer momentum to scale three feet and launch herself off for the right wall. She crossed the alley eight feet up, a tightly-controlled flip that sent everything momentarily upside-down.

The jump got her just high enough, and she grabbed the ledge, heaving herself up.

With a pirouette, she balanced on the narrow ledge on her toes and gazed down at the three remaining mercs.

One by one, their attention turned up towards her, the two on the ground staggering back up.

From the head of the alley, an exasperated and slightly out of breath turian voice declared, “there you are.”

Glancing down at Saven, Lydia smiled her most innocent smile. “You almost missed the fun!”

Saven sighed, gesturing impatiently. “Well. Let's get this over with.”

It didn't take long.

Ten minutes later, five battered, broken bodies lay in the alley, groaning in pain.

Pleased, Lydia pushed her tousled hair out of her face with both hands, feeling the sting in her knuckles, breathing in deep of the cool air. She tugged down the hem of her dress back over her butt, and then glanced down as her foot buckled to the side. Damn it. Her heel was barely hanging on. Letting out a sigh, she bent down lazily and pulled off the glossy red shoe, turning it over.

The heel came off in her hands.

Oh, butternuts.

“You could have left more for me,” Saven said from behind her, dark voice flat and hard to read.

Glancing over her shoulder, she flashed him a pouty look. “You were slow.”

He crossed his arms.“Okay, so you pissed off a bunch of mercs, lured them into an alley, and beat the hell out of them...why, exactly? Showing off?”

“We're _bonding_ , Saven. Plus, yes, I was showing off. But you _still_ haven't told me how impressive I am.”

“You need me to tell you?”

“Baby, I did that in heels,” she replied, and then sighed and looked down at the one in her hand. “Except I wrecked one of them.”

“Can't you fix it with your omni-tool?” he asked, sounding less annoyed than she thought he would have.

But did he actually hear himself?

“These are three thousand credit shoes, you don't just slap them back together! If take them to a specialist, I might be able to save them,” she said pathetically, tucking the heel into her purse.

Saven gave a dark scoff. “Why in the hell would you spend three thousand credits on shoes?”

“Why can't I be pretty?” she countered sullenly, and then started heading past him to leave the alley in a staggering gait, balancing on the toe of her broken shoe.

“You need three thousand credit shoes to be pretty? I've spent less than that on a pistol,” he said, following behind her. “Where are we going?”

“To get new shoes! What, do you expect me to hobble around all night?” she asked, glancing over at him with a frown.

“All night? How long is this damn hazing going to last? I thought I was coming for a job.”

Except if he didn't have a damn good reason for following her around all night, no sane merc would have. They would have pushed for cash, demanded to be shown to the ship, asked for details. Instead he was letting himself be herded along- there were only a few explanations for that she'd buy. One of them was that he was a bad cop.

But he couldn't have fooled Mother if he wasn't a good cop, so...

Whatever angle he was going to work could be fun.

“Hazing?” Spinning around, she frowned at him. Reaching down, she yanked off her broken shoe and pointed it at him threateningly. It clacked against his armor as she smacked him with it, punctuating her words. “I said we're _bonding_. Drinks, beating people up, and now we're going to go steal something. Bonding.”

She really should not be having so much fun fucking with this cop.

“We're not going to rob a shoe store,” Saven said, but she could hear the humor in his voice now.

At least he _had_ a sense of humor.

“Fine, then we'll play a game. We'll go to a bar, I'll find a woman whose shoes I like, and then you go convince her to fuck you in the bathroom so we can knock her out and take her shoes!” Lydia said cheerfully, jabbing her shoe into his chest again.

He tried to hide it, but she saw the upward twitch of his mandibles. “We're not doing that, either.”

“I'll wait until after you get your dick wet,” she offered.

This time he actually laughed, brief and sarcastic. “I don't think so.”

“Hmmh, then I don't know if you're going to fit in on my ship. We're running out of options here, and I'm just still not convinced that you're going to meet my needs, Saven,” she said, keeping her voice light and teasing.

His face was still impassive as they stepped out into the neon-lit street and turned to face each other. “Is there any other way besides robbing a store in the middle of the Citadel or knocking someone out in a bar bathroom that I can meet your needs?”

Playful spite demanded an answer to that. Smugly, she smiled and tilted her head. “Yes. You can be my ride for tonight. Pick me up!” Expectantly, she lifted her arms.

She expected him to refuse.

If he was shunted to another ship, it would only be good for her- she could take her pick from the other crews, and then when he was established, she could 'leak' his identity to Mother. It wouldn't be her crew's problem, and then Mother could deal with the mole. Not her.

But to her surprise, Saven sighed, shaking his head as he stepped in and scooped her off her feet. Her surprised squeak made him chuckle as he picked her up, bridal-style. A little dizzy, and not just from the tequila, she blinked at him.

Definitely had not been expecting to be swept off her feet tonight.

“Why the brat act, Princess? I can tell you know you're being a pain.”

“Just getting a feel for you,” she said, gesturing with her bare foot, pointing her toes. “Plus, I'm having fun. I wanna find a really terrible bar where I can start fights and then hide behind you.”

“I just watched you beat the hell out of three armored mercs faster than _I_ could. Really?”

“You know you can tap out at any time. I told you there's a position on a different ship waiting for you. It's starting to feel like you're complaining because you enjoy being annoyed,” Lydia accused, lips curving up into a lazy smile. “Is that what's going on, Saven?”

There was almost a flicker of recognition, and she definitely noticed the upward twitch of his mandibles.

“I need to get you too drunk to hassle me. Fast,” he said, voice flat.

“He learns,” she said, slow and sly. “You sure this isn't too embarrassing for you?”

“I sold my dignity a long time ago, Princess. Where am I taking you?”

It was probably one of the worst ideas she'd had in a while, but...

Well, there was more than one way to get her needs met.

Lydia propped an elbow up on his shoulder, resting her cheek in her hand as she crossed her ankles, broken shoe dangling from her toes as she arched her foot. “Well...if you head that way-” she pointed with her foot to the left- “we will be heading to a nice little dive bar I happen to like.” Her foot pointed to the right. “If we go this way...you can take me home. The choice is yours.”

It took him a good thirty seconds to decide.

And then he took her home.

Lying belly-down on her bed, Lydia idly read the scanner report on her omni-tool.

The captain's room on the Megaera smelled better after a few months of slowly clearing it out, though it was as small as ever. But she didn't have much and she didn't let Saven keep anything in here, so it was less cramped and more cozy. If you ignored the dents and wear and tear.

“This is garbage,” she finally reported, letting the brilliantly blue diamond necklace droop from her hand. She'd had her suspicions, but... “It's not naturally irradiated diamond, it was irradiated in a lab.”

“Shit. Why does that matter? Isn't it basically the same thing?” Ezrikah asked, voice a little crackly from comm interference.

“Because the people who buy it care. Still, it's a twenty eight point five carat blue diamond- well-cut, and the design's pretty. I'll have some papers forged and we should be able to get it auctioned.”

“At least we got _something_ more than the damn guns out of that vault. I know we got the important stuff, but I was really hoping for some extras, more currency-based,” Ezrikah said irritably.

“Don't worry, don't worry! As long as you guys are willing to wait, I'll squeeze every last cred out of this haul I can, I promise!” Lydia said encouragingly, kicking her toes against the bed. “If you can't wait, I'll pay you what I can no-”

“I trust you, Princess, you know that. More than I trust anyone else around here. I know you'll cut me in fairly,” Ezrikah said. “We're family, you won't do me dirty.”

“Mmh,” Lydia agreed, pleased. That boded well- it might be time to enact the next step in her plan. “Since we both provided half the specialists for the job, fifty-fifty is fair. I know I got the info, but it was someone repaying me a favor, so it didn't cost me. I'm giving one share to everyone, and three to anyone who came on the job.”

“I'll follow your lead. Hasn't steered me wrong yet.”

“Obviously the guns are worth a lot more than the jewelry, but the jewelry is more fun, if you ask me,” Lydi said, absently examining her fingers as she slid on another of the rings. “I'll contact Khan to let him know we have the haul.”

“Your new bedwarmer Vextrus ran the retrieval op pretty well, he's a decent pilot,” Halls said, grudgingly complimentary. “Still don't like him, though.”

“If you did I'd be worried. He's just come on- I'd give him at least a year before I trust him. Cicero would have shot him in the head if he screwed the op and thrown him out of the shuttle. That's what Cis was there for.”

“So you'll screw Vextrus, but you won't trust him?” Ezrikah asked, dubiously. Of course she didn't get it- it was one of the things Lydi liked about Halls. Didn't let anyone close unless she trusted them, and damn anyone else.

She was singularly un-duplicitous when it came to the important stuff.

“Honey, I kick him out of bed afterwards.”

Ezrikah gave a faint, rusty chuckle. “I do _not_ wanna live your damn life.”

“I'll sacrifice cuddling to not die. Khan wants us to meet him immediately, before the owner of that moon decides if he's going to report his prized collection stolen or not.”

“It's a good thing it's a collection of fancy one of a kind guns and not stabbing things, or you'd have to airlock Nick to sell them,” Ezrikah joked, and then gave a faint grunt. “Shit.”

“Arm okay?”

Ezrikah rolled her shoulder, holo flickering with the motion. “I'm still in one piece, everything else is just new scars. Nova patched me back together. Just not a fan of unexpected mechs.”

“Mother warned us the intel was old. You did good. Your crew listened to you, we had no fatalities, and most importantly- we didn't trip the overall security system. That went cleaner than any operation Sinora ever ran,” Lydia said, not bothering to be stingy with the compliments.

Halls sounded genuinely pleased. “Well...thanks. It's shaping up okay. Nova thinks you're going to go for taking over the Tisiphone next.”

Pretending at innocence, Lydia picked up an imperial jade bracelet, admiring the design. Asari- it had to be. She put it around her wrist, and spun it with a finger. Gorgeous. Clear, dark green. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“No? So taking over the Vyassa before the Matriarch told you to was just you anticipating her.”

“Some people would think I've put a target on your back.” Frowning, Lydia examined her scarlet-painted nails. No, the bracelet didn't really go. Removing it, she tossed into the pile on the bed and selected a chain of what looked like faceted painite or blood ruby instead. She'd need to scan it to be sure.

“Why would some people think that?”

Fiddling open the clasp, she slid it around her wrist and admired the sparkling gems. “Sinora was competent enough to hold the Vyassa until my sister finishes her training. Mother thinks I don't know- but I know she thinks _I've_ gotten complacent.”

“You mean actual sister, or-”

“No. Matriarch's training my replacement- or my stepping-stone. It depends on which of us kills the other,” Lydia said. The feelings brought up were complicated. Regret, annoyance, frustration, and resignation- but underneath them all were the fear and guilt that had been cultivated inside of her.

Her failure, her punishment.

But no, fuck that- instincts could be ignored, and these should be. They weren't real, they weren't hers. Mother thought she was much weaker than she was. Even if she killed this Sister there would be another one, and another one- it was a test that would never stop unless she broke free.

“So what does that mean for me, if you put me in command of a ship the Matriarch is planning to give someone else command of?” Halls asked dubiously.

“Did she give me the Megaera? Or did she put me on the crew and then expect me to get the command myself? Two very different things, Ezrikah.”

“That's true. I guess some people _could_ think you'd put a target on my back, then,” Ezrikah said, with a bit of hostility in her voice. It faded away as she continued. “Except...you're telling me now.”

“I want to live, Ezri. It's not complicated; I'm a rat, and I will do what I have to survive. And more than that...I like what the Furies originally stood for. What the Matriarch still claims it does. Family. Trust. And I trust you. I don't trust a lot of people. You, Nick, Umi, Nova...”

“Nobody but you could trust Nikolai Black,” Halls said, but her voice was a little easier.

“Am I planning to give Umi the command of the Tisiphone? Yes, once I gather enough evidence to make taking over the ship look like less of a coup. I would be stupid not to shore up my position while knowing mother's plotting my potential downfall. She'd be disappointed if I _didn't_.”

And then Halls had to go and ask the most complicated question possible.

“Do you care that she'd be disappointed, Princess?”

Lydia stared at her flickering holo, running a star ruby ring over in her fingers, feeling the smooth surface of the polished gem. That was a question that needed a ten-minute monologue, but she finally settled on... “I used to.”

“What changed?”

Dropping her head, Lydia slid on the ring, the white star in its heart flickering as she turned it left to right. “I believe in the thing she only pretends to care about. Family. And she threatened mine. If my sister is assigned to the Vyassa, I'll do everything in my power to protect you, and get rid of her. I only hope you'll do the same for me.”

“If it comes down to between you and her...I'm on your side, Princess.”

“It's hard to believe anyone but Nick who says that,” Lydi admitted, spinning the ring. She smiled, and lifted her head, tucking her hair back behind her ear. “But I believe you, Ezri.”

Ezrikah smiled, pierced lips tugging up lopsidedly. “Then I'll follow your lead. Devil knows it's gotten me this far.”

“I only got you on the ship. You're the one kicking ass running it,” Lydi dismissed, and then glanced down at the pile of jewelry, selecting a diamond necklace. “I might just take my cut out of this. Start a collection to mmh...roll around in.”

“Yes, that sounds like you,” Ezrikah said, a bit sarcastically. “At least you're easy to bribe.”

“One of my many fine qualities.” Her omni-tool chimed with the particular three-note call that was ingrained in her subconscious. “Business. Hit me up for Skylian later.”

“Yep. You still owe me fifty creds from last game,” Ezri reminded her, and leaned forward in a blur of motion, the holo cutting off.

Rolling her eyes, Lydia slid off the bed and headed for the door. It was already locked, but she engaged the manual lock on the inside that couldn't be hacked. Couldn't hack it if there was nothing to hack, after all. As always since she'd started letting Saven in here, she did a quick scan for bugs before turning back to the bed.

Then she called her brother back.

Throwing herself down, she idly reached down into the pile of jewelry and dragged something out. “You-”

“Shut up, this is a code red.”

Stalled, she blinked and stared at the flickering holo that was failing to show her Leo's face. “What? Fix your visual.”

“Hold on, I'm getting a bowl of cereal. I haven't eaten in like...eighteen hours,” Leo said impatiently.

“You need to remember to eat,” she scolded him, distracted only briefly. Shaking her head, she got back on task. “Code red what? Do we have a code red?”

“We do now. Dad's going to call you tomorrow.”

Listening to the splash of liquid into a bowl, Lydia frowned at the black opal bracelet draping from her fingers. “That's a code red?”

“It's about his new job. I want you to be prepared because of your 'circumstances'.” The air quotes were audible. And sarcastic.

“Stop beating around the bush- you don't even like women.”

“One, gross. Two, funny enough I wish I'd thought of it, and three...shut up.”

“Going to be an awfully one-sided convo.”

“Please take this seriously,” Leo said soberly. There was a flicker from his side of the call, and then the holo finally oriented itself. His face was serious, lips pulled into a tight line as he stared at her, black hair tousled and a little too long. It wasn't the best picture, but...he looked tired.

Worriedly her eyes roved his face.

“You don't look good, Lee.”

More worrying was that he didn't say something snide. “Not sleeping much. There's now a timeline on this project. Dad said he didn't tell you a lot.”

“About his...expedition? No, not really. Please tell me you dissuaded him, I really can't go on some dig. I don't actually have the credentials!”

“It's- well, yes, it's an expedition, but it's more than that. You've heard about the Reapers, Lydi, right?” Leo asked her. Her little brother would look a lot more dignified if he wasn't shoveling Blast-Os into his mouth right about now.

“Yeah, Commander Shepard was babbling about them before she went.” Lydi slid a thumb across her throat, and then smirked. “Don't tell me dad's taking that shit seriously.”

“A lot of people are taking it seriously. A whole lot. Enough so that we're getting the hell out of the Milky Way.”

It was so sudden that her mind went profoundly blank. Empty.

Was he saying-

No. It wasn't possible.

“Leaving...the galaxy? The whole galaxy. For where? Where would you go? Wait, dad's a part of this? This is fucking insane.” She couldn't put two thoughts together, let alone an intelligent sentence. She slapped both hands over her face, bracelet wound between her fingers digging into her skin. “Holy- no way.”

“Dad's a big part of it. SAM's integral, Lydi. The Initiative Pathfinders will need SAM to adapt to-”  
“Yikes. Lay off the jargon, I've got no idea what you're talking about. Is this why you've continued mom's work? Is this why you've been working with dad? How long have you guys known about this and I haven't?!” Lydi asked, frustrated. Yeah, she got things were weird, but being cut out _hurt_.

“You've deliberately isolated yourself, and you _know_ dad thinks you're still mad at him about tanking your Alliance career,” Leo said, but patiently and not accusing. “He's giving you space, but he worries about you.”

Lydia shrugged off her petty little hurt feelings, this was bigger than that.

Leaving the galaxy.

It was impossible, wasn't it?

“Leo, if this is true, this could be my way out of this mess.”

“That was my thought,” Leo agreed quietly. “Lydi...we could finally get you free. Andromeda's a chance to start over.”

Andromeda...

“Leo, give me the details. I need to understand what this is all about.”

It seemed that her plans were about to change.

Saven Vextrus was a heavy fucking sleeper.

It was the most inconvenient and unexpected thing.

Lydia had started letting him sleep in her bed two weeks ago- first 'accidentally'. She'd even thrown a temper tantrum when she'd woken up next to him just to drive the point home. And then she let him coax her, convince her it wasn't so bad. The first week or so she'd just let him sleep, get complacent, trusting that she wasn't trying anything.

Now she'd started testing to see how much she could do without waking him up. A lot, it turned out. She'd even managed to hack his omni-tool without his brain scan nudging even a bit. But when she needed him to wake up, it made for a pretty inconvenient thing.

She'd had 'nightmares' three times before she realized the big bastard wasn't going to fall into her trap.

How could an undercover cop sleep so heavily? How had he survived?

Fine, an ambush it was.

After a long day of preparing for a job and offloading cargo, they'd had a few drinks with the crew and tumbled into bed. By now she knew his triggers. Lydia had made sure to be extra demanding today, and like always, it worked. The door had barely closed before he was on her, and her clothes barely off before he was throwing her down on the bed.

Lydi was well aware she was playing a dangerous game with Saven, but she also knew if things got in the least bit dicey she could get rid of him. He was rapidly becoming an integral part of her plan, and while his inability to be woken up was frustrating, she'd gotten a lot of good data off of him. He covered his tracks well, but she still managed to get a few of his reports copied. Day by day, her material on the Matriarch grew.

She just needed him a little longer- and she needed to make sure she wasn't one of his targets.

At least the sex was good, even if he could be selfish in bed. Sometimes a girl just wanted to have her needs met without having to whine about it. Still, today wasn't the day to complain. She was a woman on a mission.

Predictably, once she wore him out and demanded he go shower he just made a wordless complaint and turned over. He'd be asleep in ten minutes. Rolling her eyes, Lydi headed for the bathroom herself, examining the talon marks on her arm. Hadn't broken the skin, but she thought he might have clawed her ass a bit. Ow.

Stepping through the door, she locked it behind her and pulled up her omni-tool. It wasn't a call she wanted to hide from Saven- what she wanted was for him to _think_ she was hiding it from him. Two different things. So, she didn't turn on the horrible loud shower before calling Nicky.

“What did he do.”

“Hello, Mother.”

Nick's voice immediately went from hostile to regretful. The harsh rasp slowed, quieted. “No, please. You know I hate doing this to you...”

She knew he'd only protest once- he'd promised her that he'd do this for her whenever he needed her to. It scared the shit out of her, but it had to be done. Besides, every time it happened, it got a little easier to bear. Which was why she'd asked him to memorize the triggers in the first place.

It hurt, but if she could get free of it, it'd be worth it.

Lydia continued pretending she was talking to the Matriarch. “Yes, I did as you asked. I'm-”

“Damn it, damn it,” Nicky cursed in her ear, sounding panicked and hurt. She felt bad that it upset him as well; it was one of the only things that could.

“Please, Mother, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.” The fear in her voice was partially fake, but the apology was real. And it was for him.

Nick finally gave in and said the words she knew he loathed. “You've been disrespectful.”

It wasn't the same coming from his voice- Mother had been careful in that respect. But just the words themselves, while they couldn't trigger the crippling terror and pain, they still brought with them a swell of fear that had her sinking to the floor, legs going weak. An incomplete trigger, but enough.

“I'm sorry,” she repeated weakly, hands starting to shake.

Mother would play with it, let her cringe and cry before making it worse. Nick wanted it over with, so he just moved on to the next line without pausing, voice full of pain. “Respect is earned.”

Her knees pressed to her chest, heart fluttering rapidly. She could feel it pounding in her temples, in her throat, every breath shuddering and painful. She could almost feel the shocks, the burning in her veins, mind swimming as if she'd been drugged all over again.

Plunged back into the terror of what it meant to be Mother's daughter.

“Fear is respect.”

This time she could almost hear Mother, like it wasn't Nick at all. It echoed in her brain, the heels of her hands pressing into her forehead as she rocked. The first sob escaped her even though she didn't want it to, scraping out of her throat with a twisting tightness.

“Baby?” The call came distantly from beyond the bathroom door, like it was underwater.

No.

She was underwater- drowning.

“Pain teaches fear.”

Too fast, he said it too fast. Nicky was trying to get it over with, but she hadn't braced herself to hear it. The little strangled scream that escaped her as she curled in on herself and fell to her side made him curse in her ear, frustrated and hurt. She couldn't breathe, there was a weight on her chest and her heart beat faster, and faster, racing like it was trying to outrun the pain.

What was real and what was fake, she couldn't tell any more.

Was the pain in her mind, or was she back there? Maybe she was being punished after all. Helpless, she sobbed, and Nick hung up the call after a whispered apology.

By the time Saven managed to hack her bathroom door she was curled up under the tiny sink, huddled against the wall with tears on her cheek and nail-marks cutting into her palms.

But she was there because she wanted to be.

If she hadn't been in control, she would have fought him, screamed at him. Instead, when he knelt down and reached for him she threw herself at him like he was a life preserver, clutching at his bare chest as he pulled her in against him. Sobbing, she shook her head as he asked questions, his words nothing but muddy noise.

She was dragged off the floor and carried into the shower, but the damn aftermath of those stupid triggers had left her more weak than she'd expected. It was Nicky's fault, he'd done it too fast, but how could she be mad at him? It hurt him to do it, too.

The warmth of the shower penetrated the terrified cold that had her shaking, but the aftermath still left her incapable of speech. She felt as exhausted as if she really had gone through being Corrected. It wasn't what she'd meant to do; she'd meant to be pitiful and cute at him, finally work on pulling down that wall he kept up between them.

Instead she was a mess.

It was the same outcome, but this was far less dignified. Saven was a good cop, this was one of those things she couldn't fake and get away with, but unfortunately it had gotten a little too real for her too. So she stayed docile to try and recover, let herself be washed, tucked into bed. The shot of liquor he got for her helped, the spreading warmth burning its way to her stomach.

The crash slowly faded, and the shaking stopped, the hand slowly stroking down her arm helping just enough. She realized she was cradled in his arms, damp body curled against his hard, bare chest. He leeched the heat from her body, but this time it was welcome instead of chilling. It helped her think.

He'd never been this solicitous before.

“Baby, look at me,” he finally said, tilting her chin up and to the side.

Reluctantly she met his slate gray eyes.

“What happened?”

“I just wasn't feeling well,” she said, averting her eyes and trying to turn her head.

His thumb tucked against her jaw, pinning her. “Don't lie to me. Did the Matriarch just call you?”

“I made a mistake,” she evaded, keeping her eyes averted downward, lashes lowering. “I- I- I made a mistake. It was my fault. I needed to be corrected.”

“What do you _mean_ , corrected?”

“It's nothing,” she denied, trying to pull back again. When his hand tightened, she flinched, and he abruptly released her. “I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to see that.”

As expected, he immediately turned to placation. “Baby,” he said, stroking a heavy-fingered hand down her head, gently nudging her to face him. She did so, but with her eyes averted. “Is this why you wouldn't let me stay before?”

Damn, she hadn't even thought of that. Smart. That made this work even better!

Tamping down a sly smile, Lydia shrugged and curled in on herself.

She didn't have to lead him, he'd lead her. It was good to see where his head was at before she spilled anything, so she resisted his gentle questioning, and then his more frustrated ones. When he finally snapped at her, she pulled a blanket over her head and turned away from him, hiding in the fetal position. His arm was still around her stomach, hanging on to her.

Saven pulled her back in like a fish on a hook, until her back was against his chest. “Talk to me, please. All I want is to protect you.”

All he wanted was to dig up dirt on them.

But...it might not be a bad idea to give him some- this might be good for her plan.

“I- Mother is...mother is not my birth mother,” Lydia admitted, as if that was in any way in question. Considering she was an asari.

“I know,” he said, managing to sound patient.

“Mother found me when I was sixteen. I- I didn't have a mother any more, she died. I was getting into trouble, and she found me. She saved me. She's my mother now, but it's hard...sometimes it's hard to be her daughter,” Lydia admitted, her earlier panic and pain enough to eke out some realistic tears.

“Because she hurts you.”

“She has to. It's how I learn!” Lydia insisted, inhaling in a shudder. “She's taught me so much. It's hard being her daughter. It's an honor being her daughter. If I'm not corrected I won't learn, Saven. It's okay. I'm okay.”

She let the word trail off pitifully, but kept her face firm, eyes watery but clear.

“Princess...do you have any other family besides your mother that died?”

It wasn't the question she was expecting, her eyes going wide as she stared at him. Damn it. It took her a second to gather herself, glancing away as his hand stroked slowly over her hair in a soothing, petting motion.

There was no way she'd drag dad or Leo into this.

“Mother said they're gone,” she lied.

“But you _did_ have a family...” he persisted.

No, this was a conversation she didn't want to have. Time to derail it.

“I have Mother and the Furies.” Glancing up, she firmed her expression. “I have you. Don't I?”

His hand stalled, and he reached for her shoulder and pulled her in. This time she didn't resist. His usually brusque, low voice actually sounded soft for once. “You do.”

She turned her eyes up to his face, pleading. “Then let it go, Saven. Please? I made a mistake and was corrected. It was my fault. Being Mother's daughter isn't always easy, but it's worth it.”

There. Hopefully just enough to turn her from suspect to victim.

Now all she needed to do was get her hands on the rest of the information he was compiling on Mother. She needed it to start the next phase of her plan. Dad's 'expedition' had moved up her timeline significantly, and she needed to get this done as quickly as possible- which meant she needed help.

It was time to contact the Shadow Broker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! <3 <3


	3. Chapter 3

One by one, Lydia was setting up dominoes.

Two days ago a new crew member had joined the Vyassa, just as her contact on the Alecto had informed her. Human again, bigger and tougher than Lydia, but just as mind-fucked by mumsy. They didn't given her time to get settled on her new ship.

Thirty six hours ago, the Vyassa and the Megaera had met in orbit around a moon above an inhabitable planet in the Terminus systems. They were going to talk about a job. Well, that's why they said they were there.

The thing was, the Matriarch had trained Lydia to be discreet. Careful. Sneaky. To make plans that would take months, or even years. She was trained to look ahead, to always try to outplay her opponents, never waste resources. Every move should be calculated.

So when Lydia came onboard the Vyassa and met Arcadia, she knew it was the beginning of a long and convoluted chess game that only one of them could survive.

It was over in five minutes.

Her new Sister Arcadia might have been expecting a drug in her drink, or for Lydia to try and get her alone to question her, but she wasn't expecting to get jumped by six people at once and knocked out. Well, it could have been one person to still get the job done, but at least the rest of them kept her contained while Cicero hit her like a truck.

Krogans were good for that.

Without further ceremony or panache, which was wise but unsatisfying, Lydia airlocked unconscious Arcadia and that was the end of it. Problem solved. Except for the consequences, of course, which she was counting on.

The consequences were also part of the plan.

“Why was that so easy?” Nick asked, pacing by her side as they headed for the Captain's quarters on board the Vyassa.

“Because I wasn't supposed to do it that way,” Lydia replied with a sweet smile.

Lydia had dragged Nicky along to leave Saven in charge of the Megaera. She wanted to give him a chance to contact his superiors and the illusion of her trust. The more he could get away with, the more she could take off of him to bolster her position. The less he doubted her, the longer she would have to escape.

“Hmm,” Nicky said, falling in behind her as they breached Halls' quarters.

A chair had been dragged up for Lydia, and she draped herself into it, crossing her legs daintily. Nick flopped down on the floor next to her and leaned against her thigh with a proprietary air. Halls and Nova were already here, as was Cicero and Umi, the asari her contact on board the Vyassa back when Sinora ran it. She'd made sure the take-over was smooth.

It was time.

These were the people she could trust with her life, who wouldn't- and hadn't- betrayed her so far. When she had been in 'training' on the Alecto, Cicero had taken care of her, talked to her, brought her food. He'd treated her like a person while the Matriarch was twisting her mind. He might be the only reason she was still herself.

Umi was her first friend in the crew. When she'd been new and vulnerable, trying to cut her teeth and trying to reach too far to prove herself, Umi had held her back. With experience and no time for bullshit, Umi had kept her from plotting until she was ready. She'd saved Lydi from herself.

Halls and Nova- she'd turned those lessons around on and practiced on them, learning to be a leader worth following. Only time would tell if she'd been successful, but it felt right. It felt like she'd managed to forge a real bond between them. Trust and loyalty. Friendship.

And then there was Nikolai Black. Her Nicky. Her vicious, murderous, beloved Nicky, who she'd saved from death in defiance of the Matriarch. She'd been punished for that, for a long time, and Nick? He'd been forced to watch every second of it.

Now no one could split them apart.

Her family, the family she'd made- just as important as the family she'd been born to. They also had reasons to be here in the Furies, and plenty of reasons to be open to leaving the Milky Way. There were others she could trust that she wasn't so sure would leave.

But nothing was ever certain.

“I appreciate the assist,” Halls said, sitting on the end of the bed. Nova stood next to her, their arms crossed over their scarred armor.

“Hey, it was just as much for me as it was for you.”

“A shame she was too untrustworthy for one on one combat,” Cicero said, but she knew his disapproval wasn't for her.

“Then again, so am I,” Lydia said, and then smiled at his dubious grunt. “Well, I would have given it a shot. I know you're all wondering why you're here.”

“Planning a coup, one assumes,” Cicero said, and Ezrikah nodded in agreement.

“In a sense, but also...no. I'm leaving the galaxy,” Lydia said, bluntly.

There was momentary chaos, five people asking her things at once. Lydia just smiled and waited, reaching down a hand. Nicky squeezed it, staring fiercely up at her. She had to answer him, and soon.

“The Andromeda Initiative,” Cicero rumbled above the babble, much to her surprise.

The noise died.

“Yes, that's it. You knew because...?” Lydia trailed off.

“It's in the news. Lots of opinions.”

“Ah. Yes. The Andromeda Initiative. And I've secured places, the Broker's forged us some spots. Cryo pods, waiting for your names. Heading to a new galaxy. What do you say?”

There was silence for a few seconds, and then Nick began to chuckle, slow and menacing.

“Oh, I get it. So the Princess wants to replace the Matriarch in a whole new place? Not content to wait, huh?” He was more relaxed now that he realized she wasn't talking about leaving him, the grip on her hand less punishing. She freed herself, and idly ran her fingers through his dark hair, mussing it.

“There's no confirmation that she'll ever hand over the position,” Lydia dismissed, giving a lazy snort. “She's just as likely to let me rise to her right hand just in time to meet the knife in it, so she can take over all my hard work. I know her better than anyone, and I'm giving myself about fifty percent odds. _If_ I survive all the people she throws at me. This is really about survival, not power. Survival with my family.”

“But Andromeda?” Halls asked, arms resting on her legs, bouncing up and down.

“Depends on how many I can convince to go, Ezri, but I think we could really build something there. It's a whole new galaxy, babies. I'm telling you, it's an opportunity waiting for an opportunist.”

“We _are_ opportunists,” Nick said, tapping his fingers on her knee, arm slung around her thigh.

“How many can the Broker forge for you, though?” Umi asked, the asari crossing her arms with a dubious frown. “Seems like it'd be pretty damn expensive.”

Lydia waved a hand dismissively. “I've already paid the price. What I need from you three is to gather your most loyal people- the Broker told me thirty, solid. No flex.”

“Thirty. You can get us thirty spots?” Halls asked, eyes gleaming as she calculated. “What about a ship? Cargo?”

“Negative, just colonist specs. One personal locker,” Lydia explained, finger scanning down the datapad. “I'll send you the details. It's not much, but it's a start. We all have skills that would be very useful, so it's just a matter of ah- phrasing the resume for the position, so to speak.”

“So that's twenty four people left over.” Nick said.

“Twenty five,” Lydia corrected with a smirk. “I've got my own spot. Family connection.”

Umi gave a thoughtful grunt. “Yeah, that's a good number to start a crew.”

“The problem is, they're separating by species- I know, regressive. There's a turian ark, a human ark, salarian, asari. And then a mixed-bag ark.”

“I won't leave Nova behind,” Halls denied, expression instantly darkening. Nova reached their hand down for Ezri's shoulder, and squeezed.

Lydia knew it was a boundary she couldn't push, so she wouldn't. Where Ezri went, her partner went. Besides, splitting up her people wouldn't work well for getting established.

“There's a ship slash space station that's mixed-crew. The Nexus. The problem is, you're going to be expected to actually work, and integrate. Hold down the fort until I can get there with the human ark. Which is why I've chosen you. You know who can pass, who would fail, who isn't smart enough for a job like this,” Lydia explained, praying it was true. A dumb thug opening their mouth at the wrong time could blow the whole op before she could get her hands on it.

“So you can't be on board this Nexus?” Black asked dubiously.

“Negative, my birth dad's kind of a big deal and he needs to be on the Hyperion,” Lydia admitted, and then flashed a quick, easy grin. “But that means I'll have access to resources.”

If Leo didn't get in the way.

“Well aren't you fancy,” Nick said sarcastically.

“What do you say?” Lydia asked, spreading her hands.

“Hell, I'm game,” Umi said flatly. “Getting bored.”

Not exactly a shock.

“Cicero?”

“A unique opportunity. I'd like to bring my nephew, Vorn,” the krogan rumbled thoughtfully. “He's useful.”

“Is he trustworthy?” Nicky asked, dubiously.

Cicero gave him a hard stare, small reddened eyes focused like a threat. “He's my nephew.”

“Vorn. Definitely Vorn,” Lydia interrupted smoothly, giving Nick's hand a squeeze. “Nicky, are you on my team?”

“You don't get to fuckin' go without me,” Nick said instantly, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

Turning her attention back to Halls, and then Nova, Lydia fixed them with a sober look. “I understand if this is a bridge too far.”

“It's not,” Nova said, speaking up for the first time, their dual-toned voice slow and soft. “We're in. This sounds exciting.”

Relief flooded over Lydi, and she had to stifle a long sigh. Good. This was what she'd been hoping for, what she'd tossed and turned and agonized over. These were the people she needed, the people she could trust. The ones adventurous enough to thirst for this kind of opportunity.

Or in Umi's case, so over it that they'd be up for something new.

“What about Vextrus?” Ezrikah asked.

“He's not a part of this. Nicky, Cicero, I need you two to sort out eight from our contacts and crew apart from Vorn. Umi, Halls and Nova, eight each as well. If you can't find eight, don't push it. Trustworthy is far more important than padding numbers. The bad news? We've got less than a month.”

“You're kidding,” Ezri said.

“Less time for things to go awry, or for it to leak,” Cicero said ponderously. “But what is the plan in regards to the Matriarch? She will not let this happen. Especially not _your_ escape, Princess.”

Cicero was right. She was more than crew, she was a resource that the Matriarch had put time and money into. She wasn't just going to let her go. Nick's attention had shifted back to her, and his eyes were narrowing. She knew why.

“Baby,” she cooed down at him.

“Don't 'baby' me, you know that shit grosses me out,” he replied with an amused little snort. His voice wasn't antagonistic, yet, but she knew if she didn't handle this properly it would get there. “You told me we were gonna beat the Matriarch for what she did. See her fall. You promised me _suffering_. This plan of yours sounds like running away.”

“Nothing wrong with running away,” Umi said, rolling her eyes tiredly at Nick's glare.

“I didn't tell you what I paid the Shadow Broker with,” Lydia laughed, not feeling in the least bit apologetic. “Six years of carefully compiled information about the Matriarch. Every known contact. Every known port, every property, even damn shop she has an open account with, every code and key she's ever given me. And...every file and report the turian Hierarchy Bureau of Investigation has been building on her.”

“I-” Ezrikah stopped, the shock in her eyes abruptly turning calculating.

Everyone else was still confused.

“How the hell did you get that? That's impossible,” Umi said. “Most people don't know they _exist_.”

“You bitch,” Ezrikah said accusingly. When Lydia started laughing hysterically, no longer able to hold it back, Ezri's voice lifted higher. “You _bitch_!”

“Watch it,” Nick growled threateningly, but settled back down when Lydia patted his shoulder, still giggling helplessly.

Ezrikah didn't seem placated. “That's why you're not bringing him! Tell me you're not working with-”

“No, god no!” Lydia interjected quickly, still giggling. “Never! Ugh, I just steal stuff from him.”

“From who?” Umi asked.

“Vextrus is a fucking investigator!”

Apart from Lydia's laughter, the room went silent. She clutched a hand to her chest to try and stifle the humor, but it was hard. She'd been holding it back for so long...

“That god damned vulture! I'm going to cut off his _dick_ ,” Nick said, seething.

“Yeah, that'd work real well for the plan,” Umi said, deadpan.

“Clever,” Cicero mused.

Lifting a hand, Lydia wiped the corners of her eyes. Her chest ached as she let out one last sigh, getting control over herself again. “If I clocked him we'd be compromised. If I killed him, no way to tell if they could get at us. It took him over a _month_ before he started contacting his people, he's extremely careful. If he hadn't been so desperate to infiltrate, I never would have known in the first place.”

“Well, that explains why he's not here,” Nick muttered, but she could hear the lingering anger.

Then again, Nicky was always angry.

“You deserve getting honeypotted by some investigator,” Ezri snorted, but she was relaxed now, shaking her head.

Lydia stuck her tongue out at her. “Hey, it worked out for both of us. And if the Hierarchy ends up being the top bidder for the Broker's info...they might even get to be the ones to take her down. It's enough evidence for any bureau to take her in.”

“And make it stick?” Ezri asked.

“That's up to them. We'll be gone by then. All _we_ need is for her to be out of the way long enough to get out of the Milky Way.”

“But how are they going to find the Alecto?”

Lydia smirked.

“Leave that up to me.”

Why she'd ever thought the Matriarch wouldn't know about the Andromeda Initiative with her dad being such a big public part of it, Lydi didn't know.

The call had come in while she was hunting through the markets of Omega after pawning a load of weaponry. Nothing good, just standard guard fare. Still credits. She wanted to shore up as much as she could for the people they were leaving behind in the Milky Way. It'd be dispersed once she was on the Hyperion.

“Princess,” she said, picking up the scrambled call.

“Dearest.”

Freezing at Mother's soft, confiding voice, Lydia swallowed heavily. She'd known some sort of contact was coming after she'd airlocked Arcadia. Now she just had to play the most dangerous game of her life, and hope to come out on top.

“Mother.”

“I would like an explanation as to why you wasted my resources the way you did. Had I given you some reason to kill our newest crew member?”

“I didn't like her face,” Lydia replied in her best indolent voice, idly picking up a necklace from a tangled tray of them. Cheap, flawed diamonds, but pretty and sparkly. Not that non-industrial diamonds were really worth that much.

“The Vyassa is not your ship, dear, I must remind you. Just because you installed the Captain does not mean you can make these sorts of decisions. If you are not careful you will alienate Captain Halls with your high-handed behavior.”

Not everyone was as disloyal as you, mumsie.

“Halls should be grateful. I gave her that ship.”

Picking up a pair of dangly scarlet earrings that looked to have been designed for human ears, Lydia turned them in her fingers. Mmmh, she didn't need more jewelry. Couldn't take it with her. Idly she tossed them back in the tray and wandered on.

“Gratitude never lasts as long as it should. Speaking of gratitude...are you aware that your name is on the Hyperion's crew register?”

“What's the Hyperion?” Lydia asked, glancing over a stall of refurbished parts.

“I don't find ignorance as cute as your new toy does, dear.”

“Mmh. Is that the name of Alec's ship?” If she called him 'dad', the Matriarch always got annoyed. Awfully petty of her. “It's not like he asked me if I was going, he just assumed.”

“Is that all? Well. I certainly hope another accident doesn't befall them.”

The words stilled Lydia, panic seizing her chest. No, no. She couldn't let it show. But all these years, the Matriarch had used her dad and brother against her, had let her stay in nominal contact so she could use them to threaten Lydia. But she didn't know that Leo knew everything.

She couldn't, or Leo would be dead.

“Accident?”

“An unfortunate one. I just find it suspicious that you are on the crew roster, and you have said nothing about it to me. It seems you would want to reassure me if what you are saying is the truth.”

“Mother...I just thought it wasn't important.”

“Indeed. Well. It seems you are having trouble remembering what is important and what isn't. I believe you need to be reminded.”

Fear rose, despite knowing this was exactly what she needed to happen. Well-ingrained, well-taught terror that clutched her like a fist around her heart. “Mother, please. I'm sorry. I wasn't hiding anything from you, I promise.”

“In three days you will be given a location to report to. Your crew will be on standby until the Hyperion departs, and you will keep me company on the Alecto while that time is passing.”

“I'm sorry, Mother. I said I was sorry.”

“It's time for you to be corrected regardless. You've gotten too proud and high-handed, dear. I'm disappointed that you were unwilling to even give the new crew member a chance.”

Lydia dropped the act and stopped pretending she didn't know who Arcadia was. “Sorry you didn't get a good show out of it.”

Mother chuckled softly. “I will see you in three days.”

The call ended.

Right now Lydia would normally be shaking from fear and anticipation of the punishment to come. Over a week of correction- the longest she'd ever been corrected was a week. This was going to be worse than anything she'd ever suffered before, and she knew it was to keep her incapacitated while her dad and brother left on the Hyperion.

Too bad for the Matriarch, but Lydi already knew this was going to happen.

Switching to encrypted comms, she called her Broker agent.

“Yes, Earth-clan?”

“It's time. I'm on Omega. I will be onboard the target in three days.”

“Someone will contact you within twelve hours to implant the tracker.”

“Understood.”

The instant she made it to the ship, Saven would be bothering her. So instead of heading back to contact her dad, she wandered out of the market and ducked her way through the back alleys. Habit had her wandering in a pattern to avoid being trailed, eventually ducking around a corner and scaling a wall.

Paranoid, but paranoid people stayed alive.

Quickly she brought up news and scanned over it as her family-only encrypted channel tried to get ahold of dad, trying each of his comm addresses. Explosion on the Hyperion. She found it quickly, though the article was pretty biased and mocking about the whole thing. Didn't seem like the Andromeda Initiative was popular on Earth.

When she failed to get ahold of dad after a couple tries, she switched to Leo's.

Quelling her fear, he picked up immediately.

“Dad's okay. I promise, dad's okay,” Leo said reassuringly in her ear even before a greeting, his voice slightly distorted by the encrypted channel. “Those Homeward Sol assholes tried to blow up the core, but they failed. Everything's going forward as planned.”

Letting out a long breath, Lydia closed her eyes, sinking down on the edge of the wall she was perched on. “Okay. Thank god. Okay.”

“Minor damage, and SAM is all right. Dad's working around the clock right now, though, to make sure there wasn't any damage.”

Lydia didn't give a shit about SAM, but now wasn't the time to say it. And not the audience. Both Dad and Leo cared way too much about that stupid AI. Why should she care about something that couldn't even save mom? “Everything's on track here.”

“Do what you have to do. You have two weeks. Are you sure this is going to work? I know you said she might do something, but I wasn't expecting turning _terrorists_ on the Hyperion!”

“How would the human-first assholes feel if they found out they were being manipulated by an alien?” Lydia asked, a hint of humor cracking through her worry. “It's all right, little brother. Pieces are falling into place. Thank you. Thank you for everything, we're going to be together again soon.”

“Finally. I miss you, Lydi.”

“Miss you too, Lee. I'm so sorry for all of this. If I hadn't been so...so angry, so stupid, none of this would have ever happened,” she sighed, head dropping.

“We were all dumb at sixteen. Just sucks that your consequences for it were so big.”

“Well, you're still dumb.”

“Fuck you, I'm the most brilliant mind of my generation.”

“Sounds like the future's grim, then. Looks like we're getting out just in time,” Lydia said with a fond smile. “See you soon, Doctor Ryder.”

“Recon Specialist.”

Hold the damn phone. Was he saying what he thought she was saying?

“Wait, what? I thought I was listed as a colonist.”

“Nope. Dad put you on his team, Lydi. You really need to check your messages,” Leo said, amused.

“Why the hell would he do that? I'm only registered as an Alliance reservist, Leo. My SAM implant is ancient. I'm a fucking ethnobotanist, for Christ's sake.”

“Well, you're actually none of those things, and Dad already had me prep a replacement implant for you, I'm going to change it out before we go into cryo,” Leo said, highly amused. “It's my latest design, even better than mine. You should be flattered. He wants you close, Lydi. He wants to fix things between you guys.”

“Still not a good enough reason for nepotism,” she groused, reaching up and pushing back her hair.

“I may have encouraged it. Well. It might have been entirely my idea. This is _better_ for you than being stuck on some science team where you don't know what you're doing. This will utilize the skills you actually have.”

“You manipulative bastard,” Lydi sighed. She'd be annoyed, but...he was actually right. She could be useful this way. “Thank you.”

Leo's voice was smugly sly. “You're welcome. If you still want to change I can pull some strings. How do you feel about getting repeatedly knocked up for the future of humanity?”

“You are foul,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose. “I think I'll pass. Recon Specialist it is.”

“Love you, Lydi.”

“Love you too. I'm going to go dark for a while, it's part of the plan, don't panic. I'll contact you once I'm free.”

“You've got this.”

Lydia let out a slow sigh, tilting her head back. He was right. She had this.

There wasn't any other choice.

Days blurred together.

Sometimes she would be left alone, in silence, only the hum of the ship keeping her from going insane. The lights weren't constant, sometimes it was too bright and she couldn't sleep until exhausted. Sometimes it was pitch black and every sound was magnified.

She was left alone for a week with nothing but nutrient paste to keep her going. The gradual dehydration was almost harder than anything else. She would have murdered an orphanage full of kittens for a plain glass of water.

The correction began after a period of time she had no way of measuring. When Mother entered the cell with the syringe, she knew it was time. After she was drugged, it all started to blur. Mother's voice was the only release from the pain, the shocks and other, worse sensations only came when she was silent. Like always, it broke Lydia down, made her beg and plead.

There was no faking, not here, but somehow Lydia managed to scrape up enough mental power to fool _herself_.

Instead of begging for her dad, for her brother like she always had before, in the days leading up to her correction she'd forced herself to never think of them. Only Saven. Pushing away all the bad things, all the parts of him she was coming to hate, she fixated on him.

And then when she was calling out for someone in fear and pain, it was him.

Only him.

Mother could not be tempted to do anything worse to dad or Leo.

Left alone and shaking after another session, knowing the drugs would be coming again in another hour or so, Lydi was slowly regaining her mental control when the chaos began. She heard it distantly, lots of thudding and gunfire, any voices too muffled to pick out. For the first time since she'd come on board the Alecto, she smiled.

Before long, light flooded into the darkened cell, making her cry out and avert her eyes.

Now she could hear shouting from outside, orders being barked, but it all rang in her ears painfully, meaningless. Curling in on herself, she tried to block it all out, hands pressing to her ears. Breathing in measured beats, she made it to fifteen before a cool hand pressed to her forehead. It pulled away, and then gently tugged on her left wrist.

Fighting the urge to lash out, she very carefully uncurled her finger, letting her hand be pulled away.

“You're safe. The Shadow Broker sent me, I'll extract you before you're taken in for questioning. Stimulant and mild muscle relaxant for the cramps.” The voice was soft, pleasantly modulated. A needle bit into her wrist, sinking smoothly into the vein.

Lydia continued counting under her breath- at sixty, she felt a sudden surge of energy coursing through her, a breath taken in- a gasp. Eyes fluttering open slowly,she could see properly again. Digging deep, she nodded and pulled herself away from the figure hovering over her.

Rising to her feet, swaying, she glanced down at the armored figure as she rose from her kneel. Asari, she could tell at a glance. Well, who better to take dear old mum in than her own people?

“Who has her?”

“STG,” the asari said simply. “She's pinned down, they'll have her soon. Your information about her security systems was very helpful.”

Salarian Special Tasks Group.

Good- that meant there was a possibility that she had been bought by the Council. Less chance of Her escaping. No chance of the turians finding out she'd stolen from them. Lifting a hand, Lydia raked her hair back carefully, feeling the ache of her scalp, the tremble in her fingers. “Ugh, I'm a mess. I need a shower.”

The asari's voice was bemused. “You need to see a medic.”

“She doesn't break my bones,” Lydia dismissed with a wave of her shaking hand. That shake couldn't be controlled, but everything else could be. “What I need is to return to my people. You've arranged the escape pod?”

“Yes. Please follow me,” the asari said, turning for the entrance of the cell.

Lydia followed, determined to make it under her own power. They passed by a squad of salarians in the process of securing some of the crew, but their curious glances were waved off by her asari guide. Lydi kept her eyes averted. She didn't want to see if any of the crew were awake to see her.

Despite everything- everything that had been done to her, everything she'd suffered- right now she felt like a traitor.

The escape pod wasn't far, and she slid into it securely the instant the asari hacked it open.

“Whatever you do, don't breach the pod. Even if you end up planetside instead of in orbit, there's no atmosphere.”

Lydia glanced down at herself, dressed in nothing but her underwear. Right. Didn't want to suffocate to death. “Thank you.”

“I will wipe the system of the pod's release as soon as you're away.”

All she could scrape up was a nod, glancing down as a bottle of water and a few emergency rations were thrown into the pod, along with a new omni-tool contact. Before she could thank the Broker's agent, the pod door was closed. She leaned forward and grabbed the water before she was ejected, and hastily strapped in. Cracking her skull open would be a bad end to this.

Released into space with a heavy thud and a shaking impact, she leaned her head back against the wall. As desperate as she was for the water, spilling it right now would be sacrilegious. It was clutched in both hands as everything rumbled around her, the world spinning nauseatingly.

Well, they weren't designed for an enjoyable ride.

When the tumbling stopped, she held still and silent, staring out through the small window. Eventually the orange and gray bulk of the planet came into view below, but as the pod turned, it didn't seem to be getting any closer. She must be in orbit.

Already pretty far away from the ship, she caught sight of the Alecto in the distance through the window. The two STG ships were flanking it, like prison guards. It grew smaller, and smaller, and then disappeared as the pod turned.

Freedom.

Lydia breathed, and a wave of relief flooded through her.

With shaking hands, she uncapped the bottle of water, taking a slow sip. No matter how thirsty, chugging it wouldn't help much. To slow herself, she brought up her omni-tool and made a call to a well-memorized comm address.

“The Megaera.”

“Cicero,” she breathed in relief, the rough voice welcome. He wouldn't ask any questions. “I'm sending you my coords. I'm in an escape pod. Please come get me.”

There would be more than enough time for the STG to get out of here.

“On our way, Princess.”

Relieved, she hung up the call and took another sip of the water. Ignoring the fact that she was cold, and if her orbit degraded she'd be in for a really rough ride, Lydia unclipped herself and curled up in the seat. She was exhausted. The Meg would take at least four hours to get here, which meant she had some time to rest.

Clutching the half-empty bottle of water, Lydi passed out, head cradled by the side of the seat, knees under her chest.

That was all she knew until the pod door burst open.

A babble of voices, the warm, stale air of her ship, it was enough to drag her out of her exhausted slumber. She was still drained, still shaking, but she would not look weak in front of them. Forcing her eyes open, she fended off hands that reached for her.

“I'm fine,” she tried to say, but her voice was cracked and hoarse. Coughing, she unscrewed the bottle of now-warm water and tossed the rest of it back. No more need to save it.

Glancing up, she met Saven's eyes, forcing a smile.

“What are you doing, kneeling? I hope you're not proposing,” she joked, carefully unfolding her legs, wary of cramps.

“Baby,” he sighed, reaching for her cheek. He frowned when she fended him off. “What happened? You're a mess. Come here.”

“Stop, stop,” she denied, fighting off Saven's attempt to pick her up. Damn it, the last thing she wanted was to be carried in front of people. “We need to move away from here, we need to contact the others. We need to scatter, they have the Alecto. They took the Alecto.”

“You're injured. I can see you shaking,” Saven denied, but staggered back with a scowl when Nick pushed past him.

Gratefully, she leaned onto Nick's arm as he supported her up from the chair. It was all right if it was him. Besides, she really needed to sell this- she'd always been so careful not to look weak in front of the crew that this would be even more shocking.

“Dehydrated, among other things. Nicky, take me to the bridge,” Lydia said faintly, letting him tug her up by the waist to walk. Saven immediately followed, and he took her other hand as she reached it back to him. His grip was uncomfortably tight.

Nick hopped out of the pod and then helped her step down out of it, into the cargo bay. She waved a hand dismissively at the gathered crew, doing her best to stay upright. Saven clutching angrily at her didn't help.

“Get to stations,” she ordered.

As people scattered, she was led towards the ramp. Thank god for no stairs. She couldn't handle stairs right now, and then she _would_ have to be carried.

“Shock therapy again?” Nick asked icily, scowling faintly at her breathless laugh. “It ain't fuckin' funny.”

“You take it so personally,” she scolded him, eyes closing as she was shuffled into the elevator, leaning against the back wall. The shot the asari had given her had worn off. Damn she was so exhausted. “Mother did what she thought she had to do. It doesn't matter now. I tried- I tried to get to her, but they were everywhere and I was so weak.”

“Wait, wait...what? She _tortured_ you again?!” Saven snapped.

“Corrected,” Lydia said quietly.

“You can't possibly think you needed to save her,” Saven said, voice hard and vicious.

So funny to hear him being concerned for her when he was here to destroy her.

Nick gave a faint grumble, but as she knew he would, he refused to actually agree with Saven. “Princess got out, that's what matters.”

“And Mother will find a way out of this, she always does.” Lydia said like she wasn't afraid of that happening, but relieved. “Mother knows people. Just because it was the STG-”

“The STG took the Alecto?” Saven asked, and his shock was genuine. It felt good to have sold his catch to another group. Suck on that, investigator. Uneasily, Saven shifted his grip to her elbow. “Baby, I don't know if it's going to be so easy this time for the Matriarch. It's the _STG_.”

“Unless they've got a whole library of evidence, Mother will find a way out,” Lydia said confidently. Luckily, she'd given them plenty. Hopefully.

But if the Matriarch did get out- Lydia wouldn't be here to witness it.

All she needed was for her to be out of the way just long enough to run.

“But-”

“You worry too much, Saven,” Lydia said with a smile, freeing her hand from his vicegrip and reaching up to tug on the end of his mandible. “I promise you. Everything's going to be fine. All we have to do is warn the others, and then hold things down until Mother is free again.”

The elevator slid open, and she limped out with Nick's arm around her waist. The weakness wasn't feigned, especially the further they got. By the time she collapsed into the chair, she was completely drained.

No, she wasn't walking off this bridge under her own power, damn it.

Closing her eyes, she let out a long sigh, limbs so weighted she couldn't move them. “Fuck.”

“Go get a bag of fluids,” Nick ordered Saven, voice still brusque and hard. “If you _actually_ give a shit about her.”

Saven growled irritably under his breath, deep dual-toned voice crackling with annoyance. And then he stomped back for the elevator. Lydia waited until she heard it close, and then laughed under her breath, low and triumphant.

“It's done,” she breathed. “We did it.”

“You did it,” Nick said, armor creaking as he moved.

She opened her eyes slowly as he knelt next to the chair, and smiled and extended her hand to him. He curled his around it, and lifted it to his lips to kiss her knuckles. Exhausted, all she could do was smile and gently squeeze his hand.

“It's almost all over, Nicky. Freedom's so close. This chaos will give our people the opportunity. When we dock, I need you and Cicero to take your group and disappear.”

“What about the ones we ain't taking?”

There was a small twinge of regret, but she couldn't dwell on it. Those left behind would have to make do the best that they could. “We can't risk taking a single person who is loyal to Her over us. Losing a spot we could have filled on the Nexus is better than bringing disloyal family. They have to prepare the way, they have to hold steady.”

“We were lucky to find twenty to bring along,” Nick agreed, but regretfully. She understood. With their sort of work and skills, five people was a huge amount. “I fuckin' hate Vextrus, but are you _sure_ you won't take him? He at least wants you safe. No Hierarchy in a new galaxy, he'll have to adapt.”

That was a big thing for Nick to admit, and it warmed her. Not because she cared about Saven staying behind, but because Nick cared so much about _her_ that he'd say that. How could Saven have ever thought she'd abandon her Nicky, or any of her loyal people...for him?

“If a man can look me in the eye and tell me he loves me while living a lie, he's not worth me. If a man wants to save me but not the people I love, then he doesn't know me,” Lydia said. “Can you set up the mass communication to the other ships?”

“Yeah I fuckin' got it. Rest, pretty butterfly.” Nick's hand pressed gently to the top of her head, and he turned to the panel.

She listened quietly, feeling tiredness join the physical exhaustion, tugging at her. She was going to sleep so well. When the elevator doors slid open with an audible clung, she forced a smile onto her lips, eyes fluttering open as Saven knelt next to her.

“I'm all right,” she told him, and then laughed at the dark look he gave her. A hand lifted to his forehead, stroking the familiar scar down to his eye. “So protective.”

“Why didn't you tell me she called you for this? Why the hell didn't you tell me?”

Too tired to deny him, she let him pull the shirt he'd brought over her head. Why he cared if she was wandering around in her underwear, she didn't know. Lydia didn't give a shit.

“I needed the reminding,” she denied, smiling faintly and tucking a finger under his chin in a little caress. “Mother's teachings are the only reason I've gotten this far. You may not like them, but you're not her daughter. It's a privilege that requires sacrifice.”

He hung up the bag of fluids overhead, and she docilely let him slip the needle into the back of her hand, fingers lax. Staring down at her nails, she sighed heavily. When it didn't get her a response from either man, she repeated it, louder and more pathetic than before.

Nick snorted, but Saven glanced up from adhering the needle to her hand. “What?”

“Look at my nails, Saven,” she said pitifully, lifting her other hand weakly, fingers trembling. “They're all chipped and ragged. I'm _sad_.”

“You were just tortured for a we-” He cut off as she pouted out her lower lip at him. Too dehydrated for fake tears, but the look still worked. “We should take the Alecto's hold position on Bekenstein, since it's been captured. Isn't that where your favorite nail artist is?”

Brightening, Lydia beamed softly at him. If she hadn't known he kept a profile on her, she might have been pleased by his remembering that. “That's smart. Then when Mother escapes, we'll be easy to find. Very clever, darling.”

Plus, it was in the same system as their actual destination, the Citadel.

“Stop trying to sweeten me up. We need to talk about this, I won't let you-”

“Call's up,” Nick interrupted, hard and brusque. “Maybe don't fuckin' make this all about you right now, Vextrus.”

The hostility in the air was a lot, but Lydia ignored it, patching herself into the comm system. She'd have to ditch this omni-tool, but she already had her original tucked away in her cabin, hidden from Saven. Not like she was going to give Mother access to her things.

“This is the Megaera. The Alecto has been captured. I repeat, the Alecto has been captured. Go to your hold positions and wait for further orders. Scatter.”

That would be the signal to Umi, Halls, and Nova to get their people together and get to the Nexus. They'd be gone in days. Then Lydi just had to get to the Hyperion, and deal with Saven.

“Okay, I'm taking you to bed,” Saven said the instant the call was over. Ignoring Nick's glare, he scooped her out of the chair before she could protest. Not that she would.

Everything had gone to plan, Lydi deserved her rest.

Smug as a cat, she smiled down at Nick as Saven unhooked her IV bag from the strut he'd hung it on. Nicky rolled his eyes, and she flashed him a little wink. Finally he smirked, and gave her a nod.

Everything was going to be okay.

“If he doesn't take good care of you, call me an' I'll come shoot him for you,” Nick said, ignoring Saven's glower as he threw himself into her chair. “I'll get us to Bekenstein.”

“Thank you, Nicky, I love you,” she sing-songed happily down at him, feeling her voice go rough again.

Saven didn't say a thing, he just turned and headed for the elevator, carrying her against his chest. Lydi remained well-behaved for the trip to her cabin, and let herself be tucked in to bed. Saven stayed with her while she dozed and the fluids finished, but after he tossed it out she heard him go into the bathroom.

After a couple seconds she heard the shower turn on.

Weird time for a shower- which meant it wasn't.

Lydi carefully turned over and slid a hand under the bed, pulling her omni-tool off of where she'd secured it underneath. Ditching the new one, she brought up her hack into Saven's omni-tool. Normally she wouldn't use it, it was always a risk, but with the shower on she couldn't use her bathroom bug. Very rude of him.

His soothingly familiar voice crackled in her ear, tinny and distorted by the white noise.

“-there's been an important change in the situation. The Matriarch's flagship has been captured by the STG, they've taken her in.”

“Your contact was taken?”

“Negative. She made it to an escape pod. Sir, I'm starting to worry she's not cultivatable- the Matriarch tortured her for a week...”

“What?”

“I've told you about it before, it's some form of conditioning. It's in my twenty-three five report. She escaped after a week of torture and the Matriarch is in custody...but her reaction is completely opposite of what I'd anticipated. I may have been wrong.”

“I told you to be prepared for that,” the other voice said. “If the contact shows no signs of being willing to break ties with the Matriarch, you know what you have to do.”

“Even though the Matriarch is in custody, if I _can_ , will the pardon still be possible?”

“If your contact remains a willing part of the Furies...”

“Humans aren't adults at sixteen. She was a _child_ , sir! Tortured into obedience.”

For a moment Lydia almost felt bad for Saven, for the crack in his voice. But no. He should have told her the truth a long time ago. Just because he wanted to help her didn't mean he hadn't been lying to her and using her this whole time. Besides, he _only_ wanted to help her.

What about the rest of her people, everyone who was loyal to her?

The unfamiliar turian voice was harder now. “Your bias is starting to concern me, as is your recklessness in making this call.”

“I apologize, but my position is secure, sir. She left me in command when she was onboard the Alecto.”

Yeah, she had- but not for the reason he thought. Cocky bastard. His dick wasn't so great that she'd give him her ship. No one's was.

“You have approximately fourty standard days. If the Matriarch remains in STG custody for that month, it's time to close down the Furies and chase down any leads on the Matriarch's associates you've managed to gather.”

Plenty of time. She'd be gone from here in less than a week. Smiling faintly to herself, Lydia closed the connection as his call came to an end. The shower kept going for another two to three minutes longer.

When it stopped and the door slid open, she lazily rolled over onto her back, pulling the blanket over her head. The desire to check out naked Saven wasn't even registering any more. Yeah, she was over him. “Not 'sleep.”

“Liar. Come on, baby. Need to fix your hurts so you can sleep easier.”

“Mmh,” she denied, but didn't fight him as the blanket was pulled away. Intrigue or no, she really was exhausted. The edge of the bed sagged as he sat down next to her, gently tugging her up into a sitting position. He paused when she inhaled sharply at pressure on her ribs.

“Show me.”

A pillow was propped behind her back, as horrible and flat as the mattress.

“Can we go mattress shopping on Bekenstein?”

She could hear the frustration in Saven' sigh, and she knew exactly why it was. “Yes, but I really need to talk to you. I don't understand why you wouldn't tell me this was what was happening. Did you know she was going to do this? Arms up.”

She stuck her arms in the air, but pouted at the question, turning her head away from him with a lift of her chin. The recycled air was cool as her protection was stripped away, and she shivered violently. “I knew you would be upset.”

“I don't need protecting.”

The unspoken 'but you do' she could practically hear. It'd been getting more frequent, the presumption that she couldn't take care of herself, that all she needed was him to come swoop in and save her. Sure, Lydia liked to play around with pretending and pouting and demanding to be spoiled and carried, but- he'd seen her fight.

He'd seen her kill.

More than that, he'd followed her orders, her plans, watched her lead...and still he persisted in trying to shove her into this box he'd made for her. She was starting to think Saven was delusional. Definitely whoever he thought he was in love with...wasn't really her.

It wasn't fun any more.

“I need her guidance, I need her training- I got too arrogant, I got too independent. I needed correction. Respect is earned. Fear is respect.”

“No, it's not. You shouldn't be afraid of someone you love,” Saven said, which was very upsetting, because it meant he wasn't afraid of her.

Very rude. She'd thought of over a dozen ways to kill him in his sleep. How dare he be so complacent? Maybe he needed educating-

But no; they only had a few days left, she should be at least a little nice to him.

“I don't like that you're arguing with me, stop talking about it,” she demanded, finally opening her eyes. He was opening the medi-gel, eyes focused away from her. “Tell me about Oma Ker again.”

That garnered her a sigh, tired but capitulating. He always gave in to her. “It's cold, and the winter seems to last forever...”

Soon.

The freedom she'd promised Nicky was within reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! <3 Hope your Wednesday (or whateverday) is going well.


	4. Chapter 4

Knocking out the non-loyal crew of the Megaera hadn't taken much work.

A little drugging of the booze, and most of them were down for the count in no time. Unfortunately, Lydi had noticed that Saven checked everything he put in his mouth, so he couldn't join those they ditched on Bekenstein. Well, it was only a hop to the Citadel, and he did sleep like the dead.

That's why she'd been able to restrain him to the bed without him waking up.

Once they docked, everybody but her made it to their transport and disappeared. They were cutting it incredibly close- but Nicky said they'd made it before the Nexus had departed. Her people were gone. Safe. All twenty five of them had made it.

Now all she had to do was make it to her transport.

It was petty to wait until Saven woke up. Incredibly petty. But it'd been six months and whole lot of lies and she wanted him to _know_ that she'd known all along. Just turning around and leaving wouldn't be nearly as satisfying.

Unfortunately, when he woke up he completely misinterpreted why he was handcuffed. Despite every instinct that told her that indulging his mistake was a very stupid thing to do, she was high on adrenaline and feeling smug. And he was so turned on it made her regret she'd only found out he enjoyed this _now_.

One last ride for the memories seemed like a fitting ending to their little game.

Besides, with him restrained she could take what she wanted for once. It frustrated him, but that was fun too, watching him fight the restraints while she rode his cock. Teasing and mocking him made him fight harder, too.

Which was both fun to watch, and useful- if he couldn't going to break out now, he shouldn't be able to later.

When she finally let him cum, the pleased rush of endorphins and relaxation almost had her convinced that she could work it out. But no, damn it, that was all chemistry making her sentimental. The fact that she was thinking about it all was worrying. She'd gotten too attached.

“Heck, I wasn't meaning to do that. You always break my rules,” Lydia sighed, trying to catch her breath. That was a point, though. Probably was a good thing she was leaving him behind, the stupid cop was her Achilles heel now. Still stung a little.

“I doubt that,” Saven said, and then flexed his hands. “You going to let me out now?”

Pushing her hands against his lower stomach, she slung herself off of him cautiously. The sensation of him sliding free of her made her stomach tighten, thighs pressing together briefly as she rose. A little ache, but not too bad. They were used to each other by now.

Again, not a comforting thought.

She really needed to get rid of him.

“Oh. No,” Lydia said, testing her legs a little before heading for the shower. “That's not what the restraints were for. That was just a fun little diversion.”

“Very funny,” he said. She flashed a wink and ducked into the tiny-ass bathroom, still able to hear him shout again, “very funny! Get back here and let me out now, woman!”

Lydia smirked at herself in the mirror.

He didn't say anything else for the five minutes she was in there, scrubbing herself clean one last time aboard the Megaera. Boy, she was going to miss this boat. Maybe they'd be able to get something on the other side.

When Lydi left the bathroom, weaving her wet hair into a single plait, Saven's face had lost any hint of expression, eyes wary. She just smiled at him, walking past the bed and leaning under its edge. When she pulled out her bag and threw it down on the bed, he sighed, slowly.

“Princess-”

“Bye, Saven. Oh wait, no. Daceus, isn't it?”

He gave a faint 'hmh' under his breath. Any amount of wheedling in his voice was gone. When he spoke it was brisker, deep and unamused. “I prefer Dace.”

“I didn't know turians did nicknames.”

He didn't even bother answering that. “How long have you known.”

“Oh, the whole time,” Lydia glanced up with a small smile, lifting her shoulders in a shrug. “It was more fun this way. I'm gonna miss you, for what that's worth.”

“Not much,” he said, cold and businesslike. “You won't have to miss me for long. I know your people. I know your ships. I know _everything_ , Princess.”

What a fucking bluffer- he didn't even know her name.

Yanking open her drawer, she grabbed the few small mementos she still had. Not much sentimental- especially not stuff that linked her to anyone or anywhere. Not with an undercover cop in her bed. “This one's yours now! We're docked at the Citadel- oh, don't worry. Once I've disappeared I'll make sure someone comes to pick you up.”

“Don't do this. I have a way out for you, Princess, if you just trust me. I've made a way out for you. You don't have to keep being what she made you into, this isn't the only way to break this collar. You can do something else with your life. Don't become her. You're so much better than this.”

Oof, The Speech.

Well, she'd known it was coming. And yeah, it was a good speech- she'd told him enough to get him to trust her, so he knew some things. There was a part of her that wanted what he was offering, and maybe in another life it would have worked.

But there was no way she'd abandon her family.

“I'm not afraid of her,” Lydia laughed, shaking her head slowly. “Not any more, baby. Didn't you see how I took her down?”

There was a pause, and she let her smile grow slowly until comprehension dawned on him at last.

“It was you that gave the Alecto to the STG,” he said, and then stopped. She waited, gazing at him in the mirror. Anger she could deal with, but the cold hurt in his voice was worse. “Rather than letting me handle it, you got yourself _tortured_ to take her out without me?”

Without me. Letting me handle it. Why was everything always me me me with Saven?

Exhausting.

Lydi glanced down at her desk, picking up a datapad to make sure she'd wiped it. “You weren't honest, so I'm really not impressed, Saven. You've had six months to come clean if you really cared. Don't make this about me.”

“Fine. We both lied. Now we can both come clean, and move forward together,” he said, and then sighed at the slowly raised eyebrow she gave him. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

“Oh, baby. You know I'm not stupid. You're a cop- and a good one, albeit too idealistic for thinking I'm a better person than I am. And before you get too worried? I'm the only one who knows- well, knew. Nick knows now, too.”

“And I'm still alive?” Saven said cautiously, mandibles twitching downward. “I can't see Nikolai being too pleased with me. He waiting outside the door with a knife?”

Just more proof he didn't know what she was doing. Lydia had managed to hide it all right.

“I've got him handled, you're not dying. Just going to be _slightly_ humiliated. It's the principle of the thing, baby. You got to spend this whole time thinking you had one over on me...” Lydia clutched her chest, lower lip pouting out, “and that hurts my _pride_. I'm just evening the score, I'm sure you understand. There's nothing I hate more than men who think they have me fooled.”

“Just doing my job, I didn't enjoy it,” he sighed.

“Well, that's your problem, not mine. I enjoyed it,” she quipped, despite it not being as true as it should have been. Damn it, why did he have to make this so impossible?

She fell silent, listening to him test the restraints as she dressed. Nothing to stand out, just a little sundress in blue and purple, and some leggings, and flats she'd bought on Illium. It was strange to look in the mirrored surface over the desk, though, and realize how young she looked. Lydia almost looked...her age.

Pulling her braid over her shoulder, she stared at her reflection for a few seconds, and then past her own shoulder at the naked, handcuffed turian in her bed. “I really am gonna miss you.”

“And I told you, I'll find you,” he said, tense.

“I wish that was true,” she sighed, shoulders slumping. “A little game of cat and mouse, chasing each other across the galaxy- maybe some ill-advised bathroom sex every now and again...but the truth is, you're never going to see me again.”

Tossing a small pile of clothes into the bag, she zipped it up and threw it over her shoulder.

“I love you, doesn't that mean anything?”

Laughing bitterly, she paused in the doorway and glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, Investigator Barro. Love needs trust, don't you know that? In what galaxy could we trust each other?”

His expression went blank, gray eyes flat. No more lies left to try and reel her back in. “Not this one.”

“Not this one,” she agreed, and left.

There were people out there waiting for her- loyal people.

_Bye bye, baby._

Pacing down the gangplank of the Meg after a quick once-over for nostalgia's sake, Lydia ducked into the Citadel docks. If she remembered correctly, her transport was a quick ride away. Everyone else was long gone, ready and heading for their appointments on the Nexus. Lydia was destined for another post, though.

Leaving Dace alive was stupid and sentimental, but he had no chance of stopping her even if he managed to find her. The Hyperion was getting the hell out of the Milky Way, and she was going to be on board. Settling onto the moving walkway between docks, she pulled the purse she'd bought on Illium out of the bag and slung it over her shoulder.

Fishing out a compact, she flipped it open and smeared the applicator through the rosy pink gloss, swiping it over her pouting lips. Blinking at her otherwise unmade-up reflection, she smiled slowly. “Time to be a good little colonist!”

She blew her reflection a kiss and tucked it away, purse on her shoulder.

When the walkway ended, she ducked into Dock Twenty-One, where her transport to the Hyperion was waiting. A small freighter, it was waiting exactly where she was expecting it. Two figures stood at the end of the gangplank, one of them staring at his omni-tool impatiently The other was watching the dock, immediately stepping out as they caught sight of her.

She hadn't expected him to come- it was inconvenient and out of his way.

“Dad!” Lydia called, picking up her pace into a light jog, calling out. “I am _so_ sorry! I was running behind, and-”

Alec Ryder pulled her into her arms as they met, a tight hug cutting off her words. Eyes closing, she let out a long sigh and returned the hug, sinking in for just a few seconds. It felt good. Leaning against dad, she let him bear her weight until he pulled back, clapping her shoulders.

“You're here now. Come on, we're running low on time,” he instructed, pulling her around by the shoulders, leading her to the ramp- and Leo.

Her brother watched her approach, arms crossed, a hint of a smile on his wide lips that was just a little knowing and sardonic. When Dad's back was turned, she squinted an eye and stuck her tongue out at him. Leo rolled his big blue eyes.

Still, he took her arm as she hooked it in his and dragged him up the gangplank. Hip to hip, they sauntered up, her head briefly leaning against her big little brother's shoulder. He sighed tiredly, and planted a kiss on top of her head.

“You're an _ass_ ,” he told her discreetly.

“Thank you for buying and packing my stuff,” she replied sweetly, smiling up and aside at him. Even fluttered her lashes a little.

“Last favor,” he threatened her, like he had since they were in diapers.

“You're such a pushover for me.”

“Pot, kettle.” His cheek briefly nudged the top of her head, hand twisting up in hers securely. “Come on, it's a short hop- only two hours. You cut it close, we're practically last on.”

“I slept through my alarm,” Lydia lied apologetically. “Everyone threw me a party before I hopped to Citadel, I was exhausted.”

“You were partying?” Dad asked over his shoulder, disbelieving.

“Dad, it was my last night on Earth! What was I supposed to do, meditate? Pray?”

They passed through the airlock and were immediately sent on by the crew, heading for the jump seats designated for passengers. There were only three others, already occupied in their business. It was a clean ship, if small. Nice enough little transport.

“Well, you could have come home and packed, instead of asking your brother to when he had actual work to do.”

Lydia shot Leo a narrow look. Narc. “He offered.”

“Leo still needs to replace your SAM implant. We're cutting it incredibly close. I realize that things have been lax for you over the last six years, Lydia, but it's time to step up.”

“Dad, go easy on her.”

Lydia gave Leo a warning look, strapping herself into the seat and crossing her legs. Reaching down, she adjusted her skirt, flitting it over her knee carefully. “You're right, dad. This is just all very sudden, I need to adjust.”

“Spend some time going over the specs and introductory courses for the expedition on our way over, it'll help,” Dad instructed in a voice that brooked no argument. As the ship announced its departure, he extended a hand palm-down towards her. She knew he couldn't be that mad.

He never was with her.

Smiling, Lydia took Dad's hand and leaned her head against his shoulder, tucking herself in close as a peace offering. Leo rolled his eyes at her. She ignored him, closing her eyes for a minute as the transport left the Citadel behind.

She had her family back at last.

The Hyperion was terrifyingly impressive.

It dwarfed anything she'd been on before, a massive behemoth chock full of people-popsicles. Lydi was soon to join them. It was hard not to be nervous, but she couldn't back out now. Her people were already on the Nexus, in transit, and she had to be behind them; she'd promised.

It'd only taken two hours for them to arrive, and Lydi's omni-tool registered no change from the Meg. Unless something had gone horribly awry, Dace was still restrained to the bed. She should have them get him soon, though. She didn't want him to suffer or anything.

Much.

Lydi was taken immediately to the massive medi-bay after she added her few things to her locker, dad promising to catch up. Her SAM implant was one of mom's, far inferior to the newest version worked on by Leo and the rest of the team. Having him cut into her head made her a little nervous, though.

“Isn't there someone more senior? An actual surgeon?”

“Oh my god, I've done this over a thousand times, could you get over yourself?” Leo asked, exasperated. “There is literally no one in the universe who is more skilled at this than me. It's specialized knowledge. Can't learn this in school. Not that you'd know.”

“Shut up,” she hissed, glancing around the room.

“This area is secure.”

“Like, secure-secure? Because I have to make a quick call.”

“Still?”

“Last thread to be severed, I promise.”

Leo leaned against the bed, waiting for her, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down at her. “Just get it over with. Hurry up, I've got to cut you open.”

Grinning, Lydia tapped the side of her nose and brought up her omni-tool. Dialing up the non-emergency C-Sec line, idly she pulled up onto the bed next to Leo, tipping her head against his shoulder.

“Citadel Security.”

“Hi, I'm calling in regards to Hierarchy Investigator Saven Vextrus- oh wait, no. That's his undercover name. I mean Dace Barro.”

“The comm address for Palaven Security Forces is-”

“Oh, no. He's currently handcuffed to a bed on the TSV Megaera, docked at Citadel Dock 341. I thought someone should go pick him up. Tell him it was fun. Bye~e.”

Removing her old omni-tool contact, she tossed it to Leo. Rolling his eyes, he snapped it in half and pulled out the microchip inside, grabbing some forceps to break it. “You have no class. Dad would be horrified.”

“And I have the best, handsomest, smartest little brother in this galaxy or any other,” she said, blinking innocently. “How many boyfriends _do_ you have right now? Did you break up with them one by one, or did you sit them all together and introduce them to each other before dumping them?”

Leo scoffed. “Blackmail is tacky. You know I'm not going to tattle, I haven't this far. I can't believe you're going straight and narrow. How the hell are you going to fake six years of school?”

“God, I don't know. I've got six hundred years to figure it out,” Lydia laughed, pulling up further at his gesture, and spinning herself around to stretch out on the bed. “How are you going to fake being an interesting person, nerdboy?”

Rolling his eyes, he flicked her forehead. “Are you sure you're safe? You're free? You can pretend all you want, but I _know_ how scared you are of her.”

“Yeah,” she said, expression sobering. Lydia folded her hands together on her chest. “I don't care who she is, she can't chase me to a new galaxy. Besides...I've set her up to fall. _Finally_.”

“I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Lydi,” Leo said, kissing the top of her head. “But it's all going to be okay now. I still think we should talk to dad when we arrive, lay it all out there. If he knows what she did to y-”

“I can't put him through that, Lee! Crap!”

“Well you're going to have to _somehow_ explain that you know how to kill a man with your pinkie finger and fly a spaceship but not identify plants or whatever it is you lied and said you studied.”

“Extracurriculars?” she said plaintively.

“I thought you were _good_ at making plans now!”

“It's not like I haven't thought about it...” Lydi let out a long, slow sigh as she stared at the ceiling. “But all my brainpower has been taken up plotting this escape. From here on in, it's all unscripted. I'll just have to adapt and deal with things as they come.”

“I can just put you to sleep now, if you want. It'll make this all go faster. Are you still scared of small spaces?”

“A bit. But I want to say goodbye to dad.”

A voice came from across the room. “Then I guess I'm just in time.”

Half sitting back up, she peered past Leo as Dad approached, eyes searching his face. She'd noticed before, but it really did worry her how tired he looked. With the Homeward Sol attack the Matriarch had engineered, she supposed he was stretched a little thin right now. Well, they'd have plenty of time to sleep.

“Is everything okay?”

“Just a minor issue with the turian ark. It's fine, they're scheduled to depart after us, anyways, so there's time to rectify it.”

“That's not really our concern, though, is it?” Leo asked flippantly.

Dad gave him a dour look. “We're all in this together. Go get the implant.”

Leo rolled his eyes and turned away, crossing to a locked cabinet full of supplies. Dad glanced down at Lydi as she laid back down on the table, fingers lacing together. Their eyes met, and she searched his in silence.

“I thought you might not come.”

“I'm sorry,” she said quietly.

“It's me that needs to apologize.” A heavy hand rested briefly on her head, brushing her hair back in a way he hadn't done since she was little. “We're going to make this work. Okay? It's an adventure, and we're going to go on it together. Just like we did when you were little.”

Lydi forced a smile, but she could feel her eyes starting to prickle. “I just wish mom was here.”

“I-” Dad paused for a second, and then nodded his head, eyes dropping from hers. “I do too, princess.”

The endearment brought up a lot of complicated feelings, considering she'd been using it as a code name for six years now. “You haven't called me that in a long time.”

“I haven't carried you to bed in a long time. Don't worry. Leo's going to knock you out, and when you wake up, the whole trip will be over. We'll be here when you wake up, waiting for you.”

It was silly and childish, but- “do you promise?”

“I promise. Good night, honey.” Dad hadn't ever been distant with them or anything, but he could be a little less demonstrative, especially when compared to mom. She was surprised when he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “For sweet dreams.”

It was how mom had always put them to bed.

Blinking back tears, she smiled up at him, nodding her head slowly. Leo returned, and she took the sedative like a good girl, waiting until it took her away. They were the last thing she saw.

It was over, they were safe.

The temperature on Kadara didn't change that much from day to night.

As much as Reyes despised the cold, having a bit of it every now and again would have done something to keep the unpleasant smells down. It seemed to get worse by the month in the port as more exiles poured in. Maybe it was the bodies that were the worst of it. Even from his vantage down slope from the port, gazing up at it, he could smell the stench of the rotting dead.

Eh, things would settle down now.

Sloane had done what she always claimed she would, and Kadara Port was now hers. Hard for the angara to hold onto it when they were so thoroughly outnumbered. But she couldn't keep it without handling things like the dead bodies in the streets and the uneasiness and unrest. So, while things were currently rather unpleasant, well...it was only going to get better from here.

Unless she failed, of course. Which she might. And she would, eventually.

But not yet.

Checking his omni-tool, he sighed. No one had been out of the port gate in the last twenty minutes, and he was beginning to think his contact had reneged. Pushing off of the empty transport he was leaning against, he headed back toward the gate. Hopefully just drunk, and not run off with his cargo.

The first two calls he made went unanswered, but the third was picked up, and an unfamiliar voice snapped, “what?!”

“I'm sorry, I'm trying to get in contact with a friend. Maybe I have the wrong address?”

“Oh...” There was a significant pause, and then the strange, raspy male voice admitted, “just killed him. Sorry.”

Oh. Well.

“We weren't that close. But he did have some cargo for me. I hope you don't have need of it, do you?”

“Uh...is that what these crates are? They're kinda covered in blood. But here, yeah.” Another pause, and then the voice turned cagey. “You don't know where they are, huh?”

Stifling a sigh, Reyes passed through the partially-open, dented and blackened gate. No doubt going to be repaired soon. Which meant moving in and out of the Port would be less dangerous, but more irritating.

“If I did, I would have them.”

“Well, I guess that would make _me_ your friend now.”

Reyes chuckled. “I always enjoy making a new friend. But how do I know I can trust you? You did just kill my contact.”

“Oh. Uh. I didn't think about that,” the voice admitted, chagrined.

Reyes couldn't tell if he was amused or worried by that response. What an interesting person. “So.”

“Well, he stole from me, and I ain't like people who steal from me. So I guess if you don't fuckin' steal from me, I won't kill you.”

Reasonable enough.

It wasn't as if middle-men were a difficult thing to come by. It didn't pay well, but it was easy. Enough drunks around here to find someone willing to haul a few crates for some marljeh money.

“Certainly. And if you return my cargo to me, I'll be happy to pay you what I was going to pay him. Or, credits, if you prefer.”

“Talkin' to you while holding a severed arm is fuckin' creepy, even for me. We'll talk in person. Where?”

A severed...he was going to have to tread lightly. Killing was one thing, but dismembering was something else entirely. And excessive. It didn't bode well for the sort of person he was about to run into. It was almost enough to convince him to abandon the cargo.

Not enough, but close.

“I'm at the lower gate.”

“Are you armed?”

“More than my previous contact, at least!” Reyes laughed. When the excellent joke got no response, he sighed and continued more soberly. “I have no plans to pull a gun on you, if that's why you worry. Of course, I understand if you can't trust my word.”

“I'm a real trusting person. People take advantage of that.”

“We're both putting ourselves 'out there' at the moment. I'll trust you if you trust me.”

The unknown voice gave a faint 'hmph'. “I'm gonna keep his gun.”

“Everything he has is yours. I only want my crates- and what's in them, of course.”

The call ended abruptly.

With no other option, Reyes supposed he had to wait. The night was waning, but he didn't want to abandon his cargo after it had apparently gone through a lot of trouble to get to him. With a limited amount of ships, getting anything onto Kadara was a struggle right now. Well.

Right now and probably in the future, if things didn't change.

None of the arks had arrived.

As he waited for this new mysterious middle-man, he absently looked over his messages. Zia, of course, hadn't messaged him back. Still annoyed. Well, he couldn't stop her from being annoyed, and he had more important things to worry about than chasing her. He wasn't going to cripple his operation just to make her happy.

A partnership involved both people bringing something to the table. She had nothing to bring he couldn't provide himself. To the business. Obviously. And the things she _did_ bring to his life unfortunately brought headaches with them.

Reaching for what he wanted seemed to have consequences. Consequences he was fine with, but...it still wasn't easy. For all of her flaws, of which there were many, Zia still had been his partner when he'd been scrambling to make sense of a new galaxy full of chaos.

He knew what she wanted- for him to beg for forgiveness for abandoning her to work alone.

It was only...this time, he couldn't bring himself to. He knew telling her the truth about what he was doing would buy him a way out, but he wasn't going to jeopardize his entire operation just to placate a single person. He certainly wasn't going to recruit her to the Collective, either, even through a third party.

Zia just wasn't useful any more.

Continuing to work with her would just be sentimentality, and he didn't have time for that just now.

He wouldn't have noticed the arrival of the murderer if it hadn't come with so much cursing. Glancing up from his omni-tool, letting the holo dissipate, he watched as the murderer appeared at last- with his cargo. They were dragged behind him on a pallet, hovering half a foot over the ground.

“Not too inconvenient?” he asked, stepping forward as the pallet slid down a ramp.

His new contact glanced up, and their eyes met. His were pale blue, almost gray, hair dark brown and carelessly tousled. There were a few scars, but aesthetically they enhanced, not detracted. If he didn't know about the limb severing...he might find him attractive. High cheekbones, an unusually full mouth for a man, but those eyes- they were as cold and flat as a shark's.

Plus, there was the...being liberally spattered with blood situation.

He looked like a crime scene in a leather jacket.

“If I knew where I was fuckin' goin', I might say it was on my way,” the murderous stranger said.

“Reyes Vidal.”

There was a pause, the man drawing himself up, raking his tousled hair back. “Black. Nick Black. It's my fuckin' name, don't make a joke.”

“I wouldn't dream of it, Mister Black.”

It was a standoff, tense, as they both took the measure of the other. No reaching for the gun, no aggressive movements- from either of them. Finally, Black nodded, pushing his hair back out of his face again when it fell forward with a bloody hand.

“What's in the crates?”

“Help me load them and I'll show you,” Reyes invited, gesturing to the gate.

“Yeah, okay,” Black agreed with a shrug, grabbing the pallet again and dragging it as they came shoulder to shoulder. Better that way, so no one was behind the other.

Side by side, they headed out of the gate, Black squinting as they stepped out and met a sliver of the rising sun.

“This place is too fuckin' bright,” he groused. “An' somebody nicked my fuckin' sunglasses.”

“Sounds as if you're having trouble with thieves.”

“Sloane's been up my asshole tryin' to get me to sign on, an' when I said no last time I got kicked out of my squat. Conveniently. My shit got gotten through before I got it.”

Odd to go to so much trouble for one person, but Black seemed capable. If not terribly eloquent.

“You must have an important set of skills for her to bother you so often,” Reyes said, trying to pry without prying.

“I'm good at makin' people talk, I guess. You want my fuckin' resume or somethin'?”

“I'm only curious, Mister Black! No need to get up in arms,” Reyes chuckled, backing off instantly at the tense tone of voice. “If you need somewhere to stay and want to get out of the port, I'm going by the Charybdis hostel that was just set up on my way to the daar. I can give you a ride.”

“The fuck is a daar.”

“I take it you don't spend time with many of our angaran friends,” Reyes surmised, pausing at the transport.

Black was as good as his word, immediately heaving one of the crates off to pass it to him. “I don't got friends. People avoid me for some fuckin' reason.”

“You're covered in blood.”

“Oh. Yeah.” He actually sounded a little embarrassed, glancing down at himself. “I was mad. Normally I woulda done it properly, you know.”

Reyes really shouldn't, but he was genuinely curious now. “Is there a proper way to murder?”

“If you don't want it to squirt all over like a bottle of ketchup dropped off a ten story buildin', yeah.”

Evocative.

“I generally find guns more efficient.”

“Knives are more fun. Besides, you can kill a turian or a krogan faster with a knife if you know the right way to-” At his curious look, Black stopped short and grimaced. “You ain't ask for an anatomy lesson.”

“Always happy to learn,” Reyes said with a shrug, jumping up into the back of the transport and levering the lid off one of the crates. As much as he didn't want to lose any of this cargo, it was better than losing all of it. “Here you are. I promised to show you.”

Black scrambled up next to him, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he peered down into the crate. The armored vest underneath was as bloody as the rest of him. He'd really done a number on poor Yuri.

“Th'fuck is that.”

“Very specialized water filters. They don't last long around here, but it's cheaper than importing water. When you can get them, which isn't often.”

“Eh, if I took one I'd just have to find a way to get rid of 'em. I'll just take a third of your take.”

That had _not_ been one of the offers. As much as Reyes didn't want to upset him... “I'll be happy to give you the credits I was going to pay the previous person.”

Black gave him an unreadable look, pale eyes squinted against the rising sun. “Ain't what I said.”

Reyes sighed, heavily. “No, it isn't. Well, I don't know what a third will be, but I can estimate.”

“Nah, I'll see for myself.”

Black hopped down from the back of the transport and promptly trudged around to pull himself into the passenger seat. Wonderful. Well, he had offered to give him a ride. Mostly because he thought he would refuse, but he couldn't go back on his word now. He didn't seem like the kind of man you wanted to annoy.

Feeling a bit carried in Black's wake, Reyes took the driver's seat.

They drove in silence for a time. The road was well-worn for this portion of the journey, so the trip wasn't too rough just yet. Black was sunk in his seat, long legs up on the dash as he glowered at the landscape with his eyes narrowed to slits. The occasional wince and grumble finally got Reyes to reach into his own jacket.

“Here,” he said simply, tossing his sunglasses into Black's lap.

Instantly they were snatched and opened with a flick of his wrist, and then slid on with a completion of the motion. Impressively smooth. And...he should probably not be so stupid as to be attracted to the man.

That seemed like a good way to end up dead.

The glance did bring his attention to a ring on his left hand, though, as it caught the light. It was on his pinky finger, ornately designed silver with a dark red gem in the center, remarkable for more than being pretty. One, it seemed to be a woman's ring, not a man's, and two, that it was completely pristine, untouched by the dried blood that was caked under his nails and worked into the lines of his hands.

Black caught him looking with a tilt of his head, and scowled. Reyes turned his attention back to the road.

“Yeah, he stole it from me. It ain't even worth much.”

“Sentimental value?” Reyes guessed.

“Yeah. It- somebody I miss a lot.”

Reyes was surprised by the fact that he was talking about it, and the forlorn, almost woebegone tone of his voice. For a man that was all swearing and threats, he almost sounded...childish. Pitiful.

“I'm sorry.”

“I only came here because it was supposed to be with her. But she ain't here, an'...it's a big, empty galaxy without her. You know what that feels like?”

Who knew a man like Black could be such a romantic? “I cannot say I do.”

Black was silent for a long time, and when Reyes glanced over he was staring at the ring. Finally, he sighed and dropped his hand into his lap, lifting his head to stare out across the dusty landscape.

“You're lucky.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday! Thanks for reading, hope you have a great weekend. This is (obviously) the last of the pre-canon chapters. <3


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